MILLER, L.A.: A mathematical model of insect flight: The immersed boundary method with fling

Lift generation by insects at low Reynold’s numbers has been a subject of great interest to some biologists, engineers, and mathematicians over the past few decades. Unfortunately, a realistic mathematical model of insect flight, including a flexible wing moving with three axes of rotation, has been computationally difficult to model. The immersed boundary method offers a reasonable approach toward modeling a flexible, moving boundary in a three-dimensional fluid. In this presentation, results from a two-dimensional model of the clap and fling mechanism in Drosophila melanogaster will be shown. These results include movies of the vorticity field over time and lift generated over time for varying angular velocities and initial angles between the wings during fling. Preliminary results from a three-dimensional model of flight in Drosophila using experimentally determined flight kinematics with three axes of rotation will also be presented.