Abstract
Micro-air-vehicles (MAVs) and micro-flight robots that mimic the flight mechanisms of insects have attracted significant attention in recent years. A number of MAVs and micro-flight robots that use various devices have been reported. However, these robots were not practical. One of the reasons for this is that the flying mechanism of insects has not yet been clarified sufficiently. In particular, the dynamic behavior of the vortex formed on the insect wing and its growth process have not been clarified. The purpose of the present study is to clarify the dynamic behavior and the detailed structure of the vortices of the flapping butterfly wing. The authors conducted a particle image velocimetry measurement around the flapping butterfly wing of Cynthia cardui and Idea leuconoe and investigated the vortex structure of the wing and its dynamic behavior. A vortex ring is formed over the butterfly wings when the wings flap downward to the bottom dead position. The vortex ring then passes over the butterfly completely and grows until reaching the wake at the bottom dead position. The vortex ring is formed over the wings regardless of the type of butterfly, although the scale of the vortex ring varies with the butterfly type.
Highlights
Butterflies fly by combining wing flapping and gliding efficiently and have beautiful flight patterns
A vortex ring is formed over the butterfly wings when the wings flap downward to the bottom dead position
The vortex flow and its dynamic behavior generated by the flapping wings of the butterfly are expected to be important for generating the aerodynamic forces required for flight
Summary
Butterflies fly by combining wing flapping and gliding efficiently and have beautiful flight patterns. Tanaka et al (2005) developed an externally powered butterfly-type ornithopter (BTO) to investigate butterfly flight Their BTO has a mass of 0.4 g, a wingspan of 140 mm, and flapping frequency of 10 Hz. Their BTO has a mass of 0.4 g, a wingspan of 140 mm, and flapping frequency of 10 Hz They visualized the flow field around the BTO and revealed that free-body motion caused a stable attachment of leading edge vortices. They considered the deformation of the flapping wing and compared two types of venation in order to clarify the function of the inner veins. They reported that these mechanism use springs and passive flapping, a concept inspired by the study of the wing motion of insects and hummingbirds, and these mechanisms simulate the transverse bending effect of insect
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