Flapping flight in the wake of a leading insect

• Published in: Journal of mechanical science and technology 2019, 33(7), , pp.3277-3288
• Main Authors: Nguyen, Anh Tuan, Pham, Thanh Dong, Vu, Quoc Tru
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerodynamic loads; Aerodynamics; Computational fluid dynamics; Control; Dynamical Systems; Engineering; Flapping; Flight characteristics; Industrial and Production Engineering; Insects; Kinematics; Mechanical Engineering; Model accuracy; Potential flow; Vibration; 기계공학
• ISSN: 1738-494X; 1976-3824
• DOI: 10.1007/s12206-019-0623-4

This study explores the wake effects of an upstream leading insect on the flight performance of a following one. The potential-flow based aerodynamic model, which combines the unsteady panel and unsteady vortex-lattice methods, is used to compute aerodynamic loads and simulate wake structures. The accuracy of the current aerodynamic model was confirmed in this study. The paper shows that the following insect does not cause any noticeable impact on the leading insect aerodynamics, while unfavorable effects due to the presence of the leading insect were found on the following counterpart. Nonetheless, by choosing a proper wing kinematic phase, the following insect may absorb the energy of the leading insect’s trailing wake, and therefore mitigate these negative effects. The variations of the required mechanical power of the following insect against the wing kinematic phase difference were shown to be related to the travel of the leading insect’s downstroke starting vortex.