Wings and whiffs: Understanding the role of aerodynamics in odor-guided flapping flight

Abstract

Odor-guided navigation is an indispensable aspect of flying insects' behavior, facilitating crucial activities such as foraging and mating. The interaction between aerodynamics and olfaction plays a pivotal role in the odor-guided flight behaviors of insects, yet the interplay of these two functions remains incompletely understood. In this study, we developed a fully coupled three-way numerical solver, which solves the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations coupled with equations of motion for the passive flapping wings, and the odorant advection–diffusion equation. This numerical solver is applied to investigate the unsteady flow field and the odorant transport phenomena of a fruit fly model in odor-guided upwind surge flight over a broad spectrum of reduced frequencies (0.325–1.3) and Reynolds numbers (90–360). Our results uncover a complex dependency between flight velocity and odor plume perception, modulated by the reduced frequency of flapping flight. At low reduced frequencies, the flapping wings disrupt the odor plume, creating a saddle point of air flow near the insect's thorax. Conversely, at high reduced frequencies, the wing-induced flow generates a stagnation point, in addition to the saddle point, that alters the aerodynamic environment around the insect's antennae, thereby reducing odor sensitivity but increasing the sampling range. Moreover, an increase in Reynolds number was found to significantly enhance odor sensitivity due to the synergistic effects of greater odor diffusivity and stronger wing-induced flow. These insights hold considerable implications for the design of bio-inspired, odor-guided micro air vehicles in applications like surveillance and detection.