Print Email Facebook Twitter Influence of wing kinematics on aerodynamic performance in hovering insect flight Title Influence of wing kinematics on aerodynamic performance in hovering insect flight Author Bos, F.M. Lentink, D. Van Oudheusden, B.W. Bijl, H. Faculty Aerospace Engineering Department Aerospace Design, Integration and Operations Date 2007-12-14 Abstract The influence of different wing kinematic models on the aerodynamic performance of a hovering insect is investigated by means of two-dimensional time-dependent Navier–Stokes simulations. For this, simplified models are compared with averaged representations of the hovering fruit fly wing kinematics. With increasing complexity, a harmonic model, a Robofly model and two more-realistic fruit fly models are considered, all dynamically scaled at Re = 110. To facilitate the comparison, the parameters of the models were selected such that their mean quasi-steady lift coefficients were matched. Details of the vortex dynamics, as well as the resulting lift and drag forces, were studied. The simulation results reveal that the fruit fly wing kinematics result in forces that differ significantly from those resulting from the simplified wing kinematic models. In addition, light is shed on the effect of different characteristic features of the insect wing motion. The angle of attack variation used by fruit flies increases aerodynamic performance, whereas the deviation is probably used for levelling the forces over the cycle. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6e73e307-f4f3-4b9f-b771-bc0c02a1cb38 DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112007009172 Publisher Cambridge University Press ISSN 1469-7645 Source Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 594, 2008 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights (c) 2008 Cambridge University Press Files PDF bos-2007.pdf 921.1 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:6e73e307-f4f3-4b9f-b771-bc0c02a1cb38/datastream/OBJ/view