Details of Insect Wing Design and Deformation Enhance Aerodynamic Function and Flight Efficiency

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 325; no. 5947; pp. 1549 - 1552
• Main Authors: Young, John, Walker, Simon M., Bomphrey, Richard J., Taylor, Graham K., Thomas, Adrian L. R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 18.09.2009; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Aerodynamic lift; Aerodynamics; Airfoil camber; Anatomy & physiology; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Biomechanical Phenomena; Biomechanics. Biorheology; Charge flow devices; Computer Simulation; Deformation; Economic modeling; Economic models; Flight, Animal - physiology; Flow distribution; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Grasshoppers - anatomy & histology; Grasshoppers - physiology; Insecta; Insects; Invertebrates; Kinematics; Locusts; Models, Biological; Movement; Simulation; Tissues, organs and organisms biophysics; Vehicular flight; Wings, Animal - anatomy & histology; Wings, Animal - physiology; Animal model; Wing; Deformation; Computational fluid dynamics; Orthoptera; Insecta; Flight; Aerodynamics; Acrididae; Design; Locomotion; Engineering; Arthropoda; Morphology; Kinematics; Acridoidea; Schistocerca gregaria; Invertebrata; Performance
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1175928

Insect wings are complex structures that deform dramatically in flight. We analyzed the aerodynamic consequences of wing deformation in locusts using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation based on detailed wing kinematics. We validated the simulation against smoke visualizations and digital particle image velocimetry on real locusts. We then used the validated model to explore the effects of wing topography and deformation, first by removing camber while keeping the same time-varying twist distribution, and second by removing camber and spanwise twist. The full-fidelity model achieved greater power economy than the uncambered model, which performed better than the untwisted model, showing that the details of insect wing topography and deformation are important aerodynamically. Such details are likely to be important in engineering applications of flapping flight.