Publications Repository - Gdańsk University of Technology

The remarkable aerodynamic efficiency of flapping insect wings has fascinated researchers for many years. Butterfly wings are distinguished by a much larger lifting surface, and thus, a different style of flapping flight. The considerations described in the article are an introduction to a fully flexible analysis of the wing in motion. The study of the rigid wing gives the basic knowledge necessary in the further process. The yaw, pitch and roll angles obtained from the footage have been used to analyze the rigid wing. The data has been adapted to CFD calculations in Ansys Fluent software along with the geometry of the joined wings (one surface on one side). The wing deformations have not been taken into account during the analysis. The obtained results make it possible to specify clearly the aerodynamic forces in three directions and the pressure distributions on the wing surface. For a rigid wing, there is positive drag and negative lift. The negative lift indicates the exceptional importance of wing deformation, which is the only guarantee of the insect's ability to fly. On the other hand, a positive drag is evidence of the influence of the shape of the bearing surface on the flow aerodynamics

Authors

• Zuzanna Kunicka-kowalska,
• dr inż. Michał Landowski link open in new tab ,
• prof. dr hab. inż. Krzysztof Sibilski