Meeting Abstract
Insect wings, for example a coupled-wing of a worker honeybee including a forewing and a hindwing, present obvious flexibility during the flapping flight, especially along the wing chord. In our study, the honeybee wing deformation along the wing chord during flight could be observed through the high-speed photography, and at the same time, the angle variation between the fore- and hindwing in one flapping cycle can be captured to represent the chordwise flexibility of the coupled-wing. In order to investigate the influence of the chordwise flexibility on the aerodynamic performance of a hovering coupled-wing, a flexible two-link model was considered and it was moving within the two dimensional viscous air through software ANSYS FLUENT. Harmonic kinematics deduced from attack angle changes and angle changes between the fore- and hindwing, were used to prescribe the motions of the two links. Under this circumstance, the aerodynamic performance, such as lift coefficient, drag coefficient and vorticity distribution over the fluid field, of the flexible two-link, would be compared with that of a rigid link at the same Reynolds numbers. The present study points to the importance of taking into account the chordwise flexibility for comprehending the aerodynamic performance of insect flight.
