Aerodynamics of Flapping Flight with Application to Insects

1951 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. F. M. OSBORNE
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Insect Flight ◽  
The Body ◽  
Specific Power ◽  
Vertical Force ◽  
Flat Plates ◽  
Force Coefficients ◽  
Wing Motion ◽  
Lift And Drag ◽  
Geometrical Dimensions

1. General formulae are derived giving the lift, thrust and power when the wing motion is specified. The formulae are applied to twenty-five insects for which quantitative data are available. Average values for lift and drag coefficients, CL and CD, are derived by equating the weight to the vertical force and the thrust to the horizontal drag of the body. 2. The large drag and lift coefficients obtained for insect flight are attributed to acceleration effects. There is a distinct correlation between (C2L,+ C2)D)½ and the ratio of the flapping velocity of the wings to the linear velocity of flight. When this ratio and therefore the accelerations are small, the force coefficients do not exceed those to be expected for flat plates. Owing to the nature of the assumptions and approximations made, the values derived for CD, CL and CD/CL are minimum values. 3. Other characteristics of insect flight are discussed. In general, insects fly in such a way as to minimize the mechanical power required. In most, but not all cases, the useful force is the one perpendicular rather than parallel to the relative wind. The wing tips should move in a figure 8, the down beat should be slower than the up beat, and the majority of the necessary force must be supplied on the down beat. 4. Figures are given using the data from the twenty-five insects considered, showing average relations between power, specific power, mass, acceleration forces, force coefficients and geometrical dimensions. The power per gram, the ‘wasted power’, and the force coefficients all increase as the importance of the acceleration forcesincreases. 5. When plotted as functions of mass, quantities involving the power show much less dispersion than quantities involving the geometrical dimensions. This is taken to mean that despite the diversity of insect form, as ‘power plants’, they are all essentially similar. 6. A table of the observed or adopted flight parameters (frequency of beating, mass, wing area, velocity of flight, amplitude and orientation of wing motion) is appended.

Biology and physics of locust flight. III. The aerodynamics of locust flight

1956 ◽  
Vol 239 (667) ◽  
pp. 511-552 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Posterior Part ◽  
Slow Motion ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Vertical Force ◽  
Aerodynamic Forces ◽  
Locust Flight ◽  
Lift And Drag ◽  
Wing Stroke

A proper understanding of how locusts fly must be based upon knowledge of how the wings are moved. A desert locust was suspended from a balance and placed in an air stream so that it flew under nearly the same conditions as during natural forward flight. Four stroboscopic slow-motion films were selected for measurement. The movements of the wings, i.e. their positions, velocities and accelerations, were then calculated in sufficient detail to show how these quantities vary with time during one complete wing stroke. The aerodynamic lift and drag of the entire natural wing were measured in a wind tunnel with the wing arranged in different positions relative to the flow. By placing it in the boundary layer of the tunnel, the wind speed was graded from tip to base in approximately the same way as during the actual flight. There is therefore no error due to scale effect or to the induced drag. In most respects the wings resemble ordinary, slightly cambered airfoils. Their characteristics are given as polar diagrams. The kinematic and aerodynamic analyses make it possible to calculate the forces which act upon the locust at any instant of time. It is here necessary to presuppose that the non-stationary flight situations are essentially similar to a sequence of stationary situations. For locusts, this presupposition is justified: (i) from theoretical estimates of the quantitative effect of non-stationary flow; and (ii) from control measurements of the average thrust and lift produced during flight. It was found that the calculated vertical force, when averaged over an entire wing stroke, equalled the average reduction in body weight, as measured directly on the flight balance. Similarly, the average thrust of the wings corresponded to the drag of the body. The analysis shows how the aerodynamic forces vary during the wing stroke. The hindwings are responsible for about 70 % of the total lift and thrust. About 80 % of the lift is produced during the downstroke. During flight at normal lift the angles of attack (middle part of wing) are small during the upstroke and vary between 10 and 15° during the downstroke. When the lift was larger or smaller than the body weight these figures increased or decreased respectively. The forewings are peculiar in two ways: (i) during the middle part of the downstroke a true flap (the vannus) is put into action; (ii) during the upstroke the proximal part has a Z-shaped cross-section and gives but little lift and drag. The hindwings are characteristic in that the posterior part (vannus) is flexible and becomes moulded by the wind, increasing the angle of attack at which stalling occurs to about 25°. Since both the movements of the wings relative to the body and the aerodynamic forces are known at any instant, the exchange of power with the surrounding air can be calculated. The moments of inertia of the wing mass being known, the power for accelerating the wings can also be estimated. The sum of these contributions is the power which passes the wing fulcrum; this estimate is used in a later paper (part IX) where the energetics of flight is discussed in detail. The diagrams are correct to scale. The restriction of freedom caused by the suspension is discussed, together with the possible errors of a stationary analysis.

Dragonfly flight. I. Gliding flight and steady-state aerodynamic forces.

1997 ◽  
Vol 200 (3) ◽  
pp. 543-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
JM Wakeling ◽  
CP Ellington
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Lift Coefficient ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
The Body ◽  
Flat Plates ◽  
Viscous Forces ◽  
Drag Forces ◽  
Aerodynamic Properties ◽  
Gliding Flight ◽  
Lift And Drag

The free gliding flight of the dragonfly Sympetrum sanguineum was filmed in a large flight enclosure. Reconstruction of the glide paths showed the flights to involve accelerations. Where the acceleration could be considered constant, the lift and drag forces acting on the dragonfly were calculated. The maximum lift coefficient (CL) recorded from these glides was 0.93; however, this is not necessarily the maximum possible from the wings. Lift and drag forces were additionally measured from isolated wings and bodies of S. sanguineum and the damselfly Calopteryx splendens in a steady air flow at Reynolds numbers of 700-2400 for the wings and 2500-15 000 for the bodies. The maximum lift coefficients (CL,max) were 1.07 for S. sanguineum and 1.15 for C. splendens, which are greater than those recorded for all other insects except the locust. The drag coefficient at zero angle of attack ranged between 0.07 and 0.14, being little more than the Blassius value predicted for flat plates. Dragonfly wings thus show exceptional steady-state aerodynamic properties in comparison with the wings of other insects. A resolved-flow model was tested on the body drag data. The parasite drag is significantly affected by viscous forces normal to the longitudinal body axis. The linear dependence of drag on velocity must thus be included in models to predict the parasite drag on dragonflies at non-zero body angles.

The novel aerodynamics of insect flight: applications to micro-air vehicles

1999 ◽  
Vol 202 (23) ◽  
pp. 3439-3448 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.P. Ellington
Keyword(s):  
Insect Flight ◽  
Mechanical Damage ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Micro Air Vehicles ◽  
The Body ◽  
Power Requirement ◽  
Wing Motion ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Design Characteristics ◽  
Air Vehicles

The wing motion in free flight has been described for insects ranging from 1 to 100 mm in wingspan. To support the body weight, the wings typically produce 2–3 times more lift than can be accounted for by conventional aerodynamics. Some insects use the fling mechanism: the wings are clapped together and then flung open before the start of the downstroke, creating a lift-enhancing vortex around each wing. Most insects, however, rely on a leading-edge vortex (LEV) created by dynamic stall during flapping; a strong spanwise flow is also generated by the pressure gradients on the flapping wing, causing the LEV to spiral out to the wingtip. Technical applications of the fling are limited by the mechanical damage that accompanies repeated clapping of the wings, but the spiral LEV can be used to augment the lift production of propellers, rotors and micro-air vehicles (MAVs). Design characteristics of insect-based flying machines are presented, along with estimates of the mass supported, the mechanical power requirement and maximum flight speeds over a wide range of sizes and frequencies. To support a given mass, larger machines need less power, but smaller ones operating at higher frequencies will reach faster speeds.

scholarly journals Speed Control and Force-Vectoring of Blue Bottle Flies in a Magnetically-Levitated Flight Mill

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shih-Jung Hsu ◽  
Neel Thakur ◽  
Bo Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Flight Control ◽  
Insect Flight ◽  
Aerodynamic Force ◽  
Speed Control ◽  
The Body ◽  
Flight Mill ◽  
Wing Motion ◽  
Force Magnitude ◽  
Magnetically Levitated ◽  
And Control

Flies fly at a broad range of speeds and produce sophisticated aerial maneuvers with precisely controlled wing movements. Remarkably, only subtle changes in wing motion are used by flies to produce aerial maneuvers, resulting in little directional tilt of aerodynamic force vector relative to the body. Therefore, it is often considered that flies fly according to a helicopter model and control speed mainly via force-vectoring enabled primarily by body-pitch change. Here we examine the speed control of blue bottle flies using a magnetically-levitated (MAGLEV) flight mill, as they fly at different body pitch and with different augmented aerodynamic damping. We identify wing kinematic contributors to the changes of estimated aerodynamic force through testing two force-vectoring models. Results show that in addition to body pitch, flies also use a collection of wing kinematic variables to control both force magnitude and direction, the roles of which are analogous to those of throttle, collective and cyclic pitch of helicopters. Our results also suggest that the MAGLEV flight mill system can be potentially used to study the roles of visual and mechanosensory feedback in insect flight control.

Flight performance monitoring with optimal filtering applications

2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (1272) ◽  
pp. 170-188
Author(s):  
V. A. Deo ◽  
F. Silvestre ◽  
M. Morales
Keyword(s):  
Kalman Filter ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
The Body ◽  
Flight Performance ◽  
Performance Parameters ◽  
Sideslip Angle ◽  
Fuel Flow ◽  
Aircraft Performance ◽  
Lift And Drag

ABSTRACTThis work presents an alternative methodology for monitoring flight performance during airline operations using the available inboard instrumentation system. This method tries to reduce the disadvantages of the traditional specific range monitoring technique where instrumentation noise and cruise stabilisation conditions affect the quality of the performance monitoring results. The proposed method consists of using an unscented Kalman filter for aircraft performance identification using Newton’s flight dynamic equations in the body X, Y and Z axis. The use of the filtering technique reduces the effect of instrumentation and process noise, enhancing the reliability of the performance results. Besides the better quality of the monitoring process, using the proposed technique, additional results that are not possible to predict with the specific range method are identified during the filtering process. An example of these possible filtered results that show the advantages of this proposed methodology are the aircraft fuel flow offsets, as predicted in the specific range method, but also other important aircraft performance parameters as the aircraft lift and drag coefficients (CL and CD), sideslip angle (β) and wind speeds, giving the operator a deeper understanding of its aircraft operational status and the possibility to link the operational monitoring results to aircraft maintenance scheduling. This work brings a cruise stabilisation example where the selected performance monitoring parameters such as fuel flow factors, lift and drag bias, winds and sideslip angle are identified using only the inboard instrumentation such as the GPS/inertial sensors, a calibrated anemometric system and the angle-of-attack vanes relating each flight condition to a specific aircraft performance monitoring result. The results show that the proposed method captures the performance parameters by the use of the Kalman filter without the need of a strict stabilisation phase as it is recommended in the traditional specific range method, giving operators better flexibility when analysing and monitoring fleet performance.

Small angle reconstruction of plasma luminosity for spherical tokamak

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
А.Н. Баженов ◽  
П.А. Затылкин
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Real Data ◽  
The Body ◽  
Magnetic Sensors ◽  
Test Problems ◽  
General View ◽  
Central Projection ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Matrix Detector

Публикация посвящена применению методов вычислительной геометрии, интервального анализа и линейного программирования к задачам физики управляемого термоядерного синтеза. Рассмотрены геометрические аспекты проблемы, получены проекции светимостей различных объемов сферического токамака на плоскость матричного детектора, изучены изображения предполагаемых макроскопических структур и микроскопических включений. Для набора модельных распределений светимости объема токамака поставлена задача восстановления сигнала. Решение получено с использованием задач линейного программирования. The problems of reconstruction of plasma luminosity are important for physics and technology of power plants-tokamaks. The Globus-M research tokamak obtained a large amount of data using a matrix detector in pinhole camera geometry. From the mathematical point of view, finding the luminosity for different regions of the plasma volume according to the matrix detector is an inverse problem related to the field of integral geometry. An essential feature of the particular task is the use of a single fixed camera with a small viewing angle. In this regard, application of methods of harmonic analysis of data is not enough. The paper investigates the geometric aspects of the problem. In the general view, a threedimensional object is projected onto a two-dimensional plane through a diaphragm. Under the assumption of azimuthal symmetry, there is a central projection of the luminosity of the body of rotation onto a flat matrix detector. The initial information for the calculation is the plasma boundary obtained from magnetic sensors. There is no reliable information about the internal structure of the plasma, so its division into regions of the equal luminosity is not unambiguous. The paper presents an algorithm for finding the projections of the luminosity of plasma volumes on the plane of the matrix detector. A set of model direct problems for the construction of algorithms for their recognition according to the detector data was investigated. Images of supposed macroscopic structures and microscopic inclusions were obtained. The methodological basis of the work is the use of interval analysis methods for solving geometric and algebraic problems. This approach allows obtaining qualitative and quantitative results that takes into account the uncertainty of the input data with the minimum amount of computational costs. Algebraic solvability is investigated in the interval formulation using response functionality. Solutions for a set of test problems are obtained, which demonstrate the availability of successful reconstruction for real data. An important result of the study is an information about the presence of uncertainties in geometric data and related calculations by obtaining results about the luminosity of the plasma by solving linear programming problems.

Lift and power requirements of hovering flight inDrosophila virilis

2002 ◽  
Vol 205 (16) ◽  
pp. 2413-2427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mao Sun ◽  
Jian Tang
Keyword(s):  
Flight Control ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Fruit Fly ◽  
The Body ◽  
Drosophila Virilis ◽  
Specific Power ◽  
Aerodynamic Forces ◽  
Hovering Flight ◽  
Power Expenditure ◽  
The Mean

SUMMARYThe lift and power requirements for hovering flight in Drosophila virilis were studied using the method of computational fluid dynamics. The Navier-Stokes equations were solved numerically. The solution provided the flow velocity and pressure fields, from which the unsteady aerodynamic forces and moments were obtained. The inertial torques due to the acceleration of the wing mass were computed analytically. On the basis of the aerodynamic forces and moments and the inertial torques, the lift and power requirements for hovering flight were obtained.For the fruit fly Drosophila virilis in hovering flight (with symmetrical rotation), a midstroke angle of attack of approximately 37°was needed for the mean lift to balance the insect weight, which agreed with observations. The mean drag on the wings over an up- or downstroke was approximately 1.27 times the mean lift or insect weight (i.e. the wings of this tiny insect must overcome a drag that is approximately 27 % larger than its weight to produce a lift equal to its weight). The body-mass-specific power was 28.7 W kg-1, the muscle-mass-specific power was 95.7 W kg-1 and the muscle efficiency was 17 %.With advanced rotation, larger lift was produced than with symmetrical rotation, but it was more energy-demanding, i.e. the power required per unit lift was much larger. With delayed rotation, much less lift was produced than with symmetrical rotation at almost the same power expenditure; again, the power required per unit lift was much larger. On the basis of the calculated results for power expenditure, symmetrical rotation should be used for balanced, long-duration flight and advanced rotation and delayed rotation should be used for flight control and manoeuvring. This agrees with observations.

Modeling and Control of the Electrical Actuation System of an Active Hydromagnetic Journal Bearing (AHJB)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Farmakopoulos ◽  
Eleftherios K. Loghis ◽  
Pantelis G. Nikolakopoulos ◽  
Nikolaos I. Xiros ◽  
Chris A. Papadopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Magnetic Hysteresis ◽  
Load Force ◽  
Specific Power ◽  
Data Series ◽  
Power Electronic ◽  
Sampled Data ◽  
Rotating Shaft ◽  
Electrical Actuation ◽  
Actuation System

The architecture of the electrical actuation module driving a magnetic-hydraulic bearing system is presented. The bearing is intended to be scaled for use in applications of all sizes in industries like shipboard for support of the engine-propeller shaft or in power-plants for the shaft through which the prime mover, e.g. steam or gas turbine, is driving the electric generator. The benefits of this new bearing is first and foremost its superb performance in terms of low down to practically no friction losses since there is no direct contact between the supporting bearing surface and the rotating shaft supported. Other benefits include the potential of active, inline, real-time balancing and alignment. To implement such concept of a magnetic-hydraulic bearing, the following tasks need to be carried out. First, identification of mechanical, electrodynamical and circuit properties of the bearing’s electromagnets in the system is necessary. Toward such identification, a series of experiments needed to be carried out. To be able to carry out these experiments, a specific power electronic converter is developed to drive each electromagnet. The power electronic drive is a quad MOSFET circuit based on full-bridge converter topology and outfitted with appropriate sensory instrumentation to collect and record measurements of all the physical variables of interest. Special care has been taken to compensate for magnetic hysteresis of the electromagnets, mitigate any induction heating effects and maintain operation within the material’s linear region i.e. without significant saturation occurring. The use of a power transistor bridge allows rapid changes to be applied on the electromagnet’s load force which could compensate disturbance or misalignment developed on the shaft supported. The data series from these experiments are useful for formulating a possibly nonlinear model of the electromagnetical and electromechanical processes involved in the bearing’s operation. Such a model can then be employed to help design a digital microcontroller system which could effectively drive the power electronics and electromagnets to perform their required tasks as part of the bearing. Besides, the model could also be used for the synthesis of the nonlinear, sampled-data (discrete-time) control law which will be programmed on the microcontroller system board.

Computational Aerodynamics of a Winston-Cup-Series Race Car

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oktay Baysal ◽  
Terry L. Meek
Keyword(s):  
Present Model ◽  
Pressure Coefficient ◽  
The Body ◽  
Race Car ◽  
Drag Forces ◽  
Surface Pressure Distribution ◽  
Computational Aerodynamics ◽  
Baseline Case ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Lift And Drag

Since the goal of racing is to win and since drag is a force that the vehicle must overcome, a thorough understanding of the drag generating airflow around and through a race car is greatly desired. The external airflow contributes to most of the drag that a car experiences and most of the downforce the vehicle produces. Therefore, an estimate of the vehicle’s performance may be evaluated using a computational fluid dynamics model. First, a computer model of the race car was created from the measurements of the car obtained by using a laser triangulation system. After a computer-aided drafting model of the actual car was developed, the model was simplified by removing the tires, roof strakes, and modification of the spoiler. A mesh refinement study was performed by exploring five cases with different mesh densities. By monitoring the convergence of the computed drag coefficient, the case with 2 million elements was selected as being the baseline case. Results included flow visualization of the pressure and velocity fields and the wake in the form of streamlines and vector plots. Quantitative results included lift and drag, and the body surface pressure distribution to determine the centerline pressure coefficient. When compared with the experimental results, the computed drag forces were comparable but expectedly lower than the experimental data mainly attributable to the differences between the present model and the actual car.

Measurement of Flow-Induced Forces: A Single Flexible Tube in a Rigid Triangular-Pitch Bundle Subjected to Two-Phase Cross-Flow

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Deri ◽  
Joël Nibas ◽  
Olivier Ries ◽  
André Adobes
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Tube Bundle ◽  
Fluid Dynamic ◽  
Cross Flow ◽  
Maintenance Policy ◽  
Excitation Spectra ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Force Coefficients ◽  
Out Of Plane

Flow-induced vibrations of Steam Generator tube bundles are a major concern for the operators of nuclear power plants. In order to predict damages due to such vibrations, EDF has developed the numerical tool GeViBus, which allows one to asses risk and thereafter to optimize the SG maintenance policy. The software is based on a semi analytical model of fluid-dynamic forces and dimensionless fluid force coefficients which need to be assessed by experiment. The database of dimensionless coefficients is updated in order to cover all existing tube bundle configurations. Within this framework, a new test rig was presented in a previous conference with the aim of assessing parallel triangular tube arrangement submitted to a two-phase cross-flow. This paper presents the result of the first phase of the associated experiments in terms of force coefficients and two-phase flow excitation spectra for both in-plane and out-of-plane vibration.

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