据9月18日的《科学》杂志报道说,新的发现提示,昆虫翼翅的旋转和扭曲是一个从前未被注意到的飞行过程中的一个重要部分。 这一资讯对那些尝试设计模拟昆虫扑翼的飞行器的工程师们应该是有用的,因为在过去的模型中,人们将翼翅当作一个刚性的平板,尽管事实上昆虫的翼翅在飞行中会有显著的变形。
为了研究这一变形给空气动力学带来的裨益,John Young及其同僚首先应用高速数码照相机来监看真实蝗虫的翼翅运动。 他们将这些结果与一个根据流体动力学模型所作的三维电脑模拟的结果进行了比较。 这些结果匹配良好,确认了电脑模型的有效性,并表明,现代空气动力学理论可以精确地模仿昆虫飞行的空气动力学。研究人员接着应用该模型来观察移除不同的翼翅特征时会对昆虫的飞行功效产生什么样的影响。 他们发现,翼翅表面的曲率以及翼翅的扭转能力对蝗虫的飞行动力学皆会产生重要的作用。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原始出处:
Science 18 September 2009:DOI: 10.1126/science.1175928
Details of Insect Wing Design and Deformation Enhance Aerodynamic Function and Flight Efficiency
John Young,1 Simon M. Walker,2 Richard J. Bomphrey,2 Graham K. Taylor,2 Adrian L. R. Thomas2,*
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.
1 School of Engineering and Information Technology, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2600, Australia.
2 Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.