The aerodynamics of insect flight
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The basic physical principles underlying flapping flight in insects, results of recent experiments concerning the aerodynamics of insect flight, as well as the different approaches used to model these phenomena are reviewed.Abstract:
The flight of insects has fascinated physicists and biologists for more than a century. Yet, until recently, researchers were unable to rigorously quantify the complex wing motions of flapping insects or measure the forces and flows around their wings. However, recent developments in high-speed videography and tools for computational and mechanical modeling have allowed researchers to make rapid progress in advancing our understanding of insect flight. These mechanical and computational fluid dynamic models, combined with modern flow visualization techniques, have revealed that the fluid dynamic phenomena underlying flapping flight are different from those of non-flapping, 2-D wings on which most previous models were based. In particular, even at high angles of attack, a prominent leading edge vortex remains stably attached on the insect wing and does not shed into an unsteady wake, as would be expected from non-flapping 2-D wings. Its presence greatly enhances the forces generated by the wing, thus enabling insects to hover or maneuver. In addition, flight forces are further enhanced by other mechanisms acting during changes in angle of attack, especially at stroke reversal, the mutual interaction of the two wings at dorsal stroke reversal or wing-wake interactions following stroke reversal. This progress has enabled the development of simple analytical and empirical models that allow us to calculate the instantaneous forces on flapping insect wings more accurately than was previously possible. It also promises to foster new and exciting multi-disciplinary collaborations between physicists who seek to explain the phenomenology, biologists who seek to understand its relevance to insect physiology and evolution, and engineers who are inspired to build micro-robotic insects using these principles. This review covers the basic physical principles underlying flapping flight in insects, results of recent experiments concerning the aerodynamics of insect flight, as well as the different approaches used to model these phenomena.read more
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Book ChapterDOI
Boundary Layer Theory
TL;DR: The boundary layer equations for plane, incompressible, and steady flow are described in this paper, where the boundary layer equation for plane incompressibility is defined in terms of boundary layers.
Journal ArticleDOI
Recent progress in flapping wing aerodynamics and aeroelasticity
Wei Shyy,Hikaru Aono,Satish Kumar Chimakurthi,Pat Trizila,Chang-Kwon Kang,Carlos E. S. Cesnik,Hao Liu +6 more
TL;DR: In this article, a review of the recent progress in flapping wing aerodynamics and aeroelasticity is presented, where it is realized that a variation of the Reynolds number (wing sizing, flapping frequency, etc.) leads to a change in the leading edge vortex (LEV) and spanwise flow structures, which impacts the aerodynamic force generation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Dissecting insect flight
TL;DR: The results obtained by “taking the insects apart” helped to resolve previous puzzles about the force estimates in hovering insects, to ellucidate basic mechanisms essential to flapping flight, and to gain insights about the efficieny of flight.
Book
Aerodynamics of Low Reynolds Number Flyers
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce fixed, rigid, flexible, and flapping wing aerodynamic models for fixed and flexible wing aerodynamics, and propose a flexible wing model for flapping aerodynamics.
Journal ArticleDOI
Closed-Loop Turbulence Control: Progress and Challenges
Steven L. Brunton,Bernd R. Noack +1 more
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Wing rotation and the aerodynamic basis of insect flight.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that the enhanced aerodynamic performance of insects results from an interaction of three distinct yet interactive mechanisms: delayed stall, rotational circulation, and wake capture.