Aerodynamic performance of a bristled wing of a very small insect
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Aerodynamic performance of a bristled wing of a very small insect Dynamically scaled model experiments and computational fluid dynamics simulations using a revolving wing model Dmitry Kolomenskiy1,2 · Sergey Farisenkov3 · Thomas Engels4 · Nadezhda Lapina3 · Pyotr Petrov3 · Fritz‑Olaf Lehmann4 · Ryo Onishi1 · Hao Liu2 · Alexey Polilov3,5 Received: 28 May 2020 / Revised: 27 July 2020 / Accepted: 28 July 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Aerodynamic force generation capacity of the wing of a miniature beetle Paratuposa placentis is evaluated using a combined experimental and numerical approach. The wing has a peculiar shape reminiscent of a bird feather, often found in the smallest insects. Aerodynamic force coefficients are determined from a dynamically scaled force measurement experiment with rotating bristled and membrane wing models in a glycerin tank. Subsequently, they are used as numerical validation data for computational fluid dynamics simulations using an adaptive Navier–Stokes solver. The latter provides access to important flow properties such as leakiness and permeability. It is found that, in the considered biologically relevant regimes, the bristled wing functions as a less than 50% leaky paddle, and it produces between 66 and 96% of the aerodynamic drag force of an equivalent membrane wing. The discrepancy increases with increasing Reynolds number. It is shown that about half of the aerodynamic normal force exerted on a bristled wing is due to viscous shear stress. The paddling effectiveness factor is proposed as a measure of aerodynamic efficiency. Graphic abstract
Dmitry Kolomenskiy and Sergey Farisenkov contributed equally.
1 Introduction
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-020-03027-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Some smallest insects have fringed wings with long bristles (setae) visually resembling bird feathers. They include representatives from different families such as, e.g., featherwing beetles Ptiliidae (Coleoptera), several families of parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera), tiny flies Nymphomyia (Diptera) and
* Dmitry Kolomenskiy [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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thrips (Thysanoptera). They are active fliers, which implies that bristled wings produce enough force to support the animal body weight and propel it through the air (Yavorskaya et al. 2019; Cheng and Sun 2018; Zhao et al. 2019). Considering the bristled morphology as a biological adaptation, it is important to look into the potential benefits and penalties from the mechanical standpoint. The present study investigates into the aerodynamic aspect of this problem. Horridge (1956) conjectured that the smallest insects may have forsaken their larger relatives’ airfoil action exploiting the lift force perpendicular to the direction of motion. Instead, they use a mechanism by which the drag on the upstroke
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