Meeting Abstract

41.5  Saturday, Jan. 5  Simulating and Visualising Flapping-Wing Flight PARSLEW, B; The University of Manchester, UK ben.parslew-2@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Predictive simulation methods have previously been used to model animals walking, running, galloping and hopping. These methods have been applied extensively to the prediction of kinematics of human terrestrial locomotion and, more recently, have been used to simulate animal flight. One of the key challenges in applying this approach to flight is selecting a modelling strategy that accurately predicts fluidic forces, which are more significant than inertial forces in most flight conditions. Many of the available methods of fluid dynamic analysis are computationally expensive and therefore not appropriate for use in a predictive simulation approach. This presentation reports on the progress made in developing a generic theoretical model that can be used to simulate a range of flapping-wing species in different flight conditions. The results of this work are illustrated through animated visualisations of the Rock Pigeon in cruising, accelerating and climbing flight. Predicted flight kinematics are validated through comparison with experimental data and the model is shown to be capable of capturing the strong kinematic similarity that is observed between flying animals of varying scale.