Insect Flight Simulation Resembles Navier-Stokes

June 2001 page 82

We read with interest the article on the most recent accomplishments in insect hovering research (Physics Today, December 2000, page 22. We would like to draw attention to work published a decade earlier,^1,2 which seems to have been missed by the author, that expressly resorted to the same two-dimensional simplifications to investigate and explain the essence of insect flight.

Over a decade ago, the complexities of insect flight so apparent in the seminal paper by Christopher Somps and Marvin Luttges³inspired us to design an experimental apparatus. It allowed us to study 2D vortex shedding and thrust generation by an airfoil undergoing translation and pitching that resembled insect wing motions during hovering flight.¹ Almost concurrently with the experimental work, we realized that the hovering jet generated by the physical model was amenable to computational Navier-Stokes simulations.² The numerical simulations gave good agreement with measured results.

References

1. P. Freymuth, Exper. Fluids 9, 17 (1990).

2. K. Gustafson, R. Leben, J. McArthur, Comput. Fluid Dynamics J. 1 (1) 47 (1992).

3. C. Somps, M. Luttges, Science 228, 1326 (1985).

Peter Freymuth

(peter.freymuth@colorado.edu)

Karl Gustafson

(karl.gustafson@colorado.edu)

Robert Leben

(robert.leben@colorado.edu)

University of Colorado, Boulder