Simulation-based study on gust response of flexible insects

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  • 柔軟な飛翔昆虫の突風応答シミュレーション

Abstract

<p>Insects achieve their remarkable flight by flapping their flexible wings with flexible musculoskeletal system. While the flexibility in the driving mechanisms and the flapping wings are known to reduce the power consumption to generate the aerodynamic forces, their effects on the response to the aerodynamic disturbances attract less attention in spite of their capability to adjust the shape or kinematics of flapping wings passively in response to the air flow. In this study, two sets of computational fluid-structure interaction analyses of a hovering hawkmoth were performed to investigate the effect of the flexibility of driving mechanisms or flapping wings on the gust response of a flapping wing flyer. It was found that more flexible mechanism can reduce the power consumption by the resonance but becomes more sensitive to the gust than less flexible driving mechanism. The results imply that, with the flexible mechanisms, there is a trade-off of the efficiency and the robustness of the flapping wings. The passive deformation of the flapping wings was found to reduce the changes in the aerodynamic forces or torques due to the gust. Therefore, in order to develop an efficient and robust flapping-wing robot, it is of great importance to design the flexibility of both of the mechanism and flapping wings.</p>

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