Lift and Drag Trend of Exocoetus Volitans Model in the Wind Tunnel

Flying fish is a fascinating animal that has the abilities to swim and glide. These unique abilities have attracted interest amongst scientist and researchers alike. Several studies have been performed to better understand flying fish aerial locomotion and aerodynamics performance. However, understanding biological beings’ aerodynamics characteristics such as flying fish have always been more than educated estimation. Researchers have approximated the physics of flying fish based on known aerodynamics principle of other flying animals with similarly aerodynamics parameters. In the present study, we manufactured and tested a model of Exocoetus Volitans flying fish in the wind tunnel. The experiment evaluated the lift and drag coefficients generated by Exocoetus Volitans wings by subtracting the aerodynamics forces contribution from other fish parts. The experiment evaluated the performance at various angles of attacks starting from −15° to +45° and airspeeds ranging from 10 to 15 m/s. The results show that as the angle of attack increases, the lift and drag coefficients also increase even beyond 20°. The maximum lift coefficient is achieved when the angle of attack is at 40°.