Abstract
Insect flyers have drawn the attention of many biologists, mechanists and engineers due to their unparalleled manoeuvrability. In this article, we introduce a comprehensive FSI model to investigate a model fruit-fly with flexible wings. We then apply the model in the numerical study of the interaction between aerodynamic and structural processes in free hovering flight. The model fruit-fly is allowed to fly with six-degrees of freedom (6-DoF) and hovers steadily with active wing kinematic control. The present study provides a convenient approach to track the dynamic deformation of flexible wings and the instantaneous aerodynamic forces and power in free flight. The results of hovering flight simulations show that the flexibility of insect wing allows the wing to bend and passively adapt to the detaching direction of leading-edge vortices (LEVs), which helps to enhance lift force and reduce the aerodynamic power consumption in free flight.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Wang, Z.J.: Dissecting insect flight. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 37(1), 183–210 (2005)
Wu, T.Y.: Fish swimming and bird/insect flight. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 43(1), 25–58 (2011)
Sun, M.: Insect flight dynamics stability and control. Rev. Mod. Phys. 86(2), 615–646 (2014)
Wu, D., Yeo, K.S., Lim, T.T.: A numerical study on the free hovering flight of a model insect at low Reynolds number. Comput. Fluids 103, 234–261 (2014)
Nakata, T., Liu, H.: A fluid-structure interaction model of insect flight with flexible wings. J. Comput. Phys. 231(4), 1822–1847 (2012)
Nguyen, T.T., Shyam Sundar, D., Yeo, K.S., Lim, T.T.: Modeling and analysis of insect-like flexible wings at low Reynolds number. J. Fluids Struct. 62, 294–317 (2016)
Ang, S.J., Yeo, K.S., Chew, C.S., Shu, C.: A singular-value decomposition (SVD)-based generalized finite difference (GFD) method for close-interaction moving boundary flow problems. Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 76(12), 1892–1929 (2008)
Barbič, J., Sin, F.S., Schroeder, D.: Vega FEM Library. http://www.jernejbarbic.com/vega (2012)
Sin, F.S., Schroeder, D., Barbič, J.: Vega: non-linear FEM deformable object simulator. In: Computer Graphics Forum. Wiley Online Library (2012)
Wood, W.L.: Practical Time-Stepping Schemes. Oxford Applied Mathematics and Computing Science Series. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1990)
Lua, K.B., Lai, K.C., Lim, T.T., Yeo, K.S.: On the aerodynamic characteristics of hovering rigid and flexible hawkmoth-like wings. Exp. Fluids 49(6), 1263–1291 (2010)
Liu, H.: Integrated modelling of insect flight: from morphology, kinematics to aerodynamics. J. Comput. Phys. 228(2), 439–459 (2009)
Dudley, R.: The Biomechanics of Insect Flight: Form, Function, Evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA (2000)
Fry, S.N., Sayaman, R., Dickinson, M.H.: The aerodynamics of hovering flight in Drosophila. J. Exp. Biol. 208, 2303–2318 (2005)
Holtzman S., Kaufman T.: Large-scale imaging of Drosophila melanogaster mutations. http://flybase.org/reports/FBrf0220532.html (2013)
Jardin, T., Farcy, A., David, L.: Three-dimensional effects in hovering flapping flight. J. Fluid Mech. 702, 102–125 (2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Yao, Y., Yeo, K.S., Nguyen, T.T. (2019). A Numerical Study on Free Hovering Fruit-Fly with Flexible Wings. In: Gutschmidt, S., Hewett, J., Sellier, M. (eds) IUTAM Symposium on Recent Advances in Moving Boundary Problems in Mechanics. IUTAM Bookseries, vol 34. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13720-5_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13720-5_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-13719-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-13720-5
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)