Characteristics of Dynamic Forces Generated by a Flapping Butterfly

Many studies on the mechanism of butterfly flight have been carried out. A number of recent studies have examined the flow field around insect wings. Moreover, Micro-air-vehicles and micro-flight robots that mimic the flight mechanisms of insects have attracted significant attention, and a number of MAVs and micro-flight robots that use various devices have been reported. However, these robots were not practical. One of the reasons for this is that the flying mechanism of insects has not yet been clarified sufficiently. The present authors developed a flapping-wing robot without tail wings and focused on the flow field around the wings created by the flapping motion and its elastic deformation. In the present study, we attempt to clarify the relationship between the vortex ring over the wing and the dynamic lift generated by the flapping wing. The dynamic lift becomes large rapidly in the downward flapping and reaches a maximum at a flapping angle of −30 deg. After the maximum, the dynamic lift decreases gradually and the dynamic lift in upward flapping is approximately constant. The growth of the vortex ring formed by the flapping wing was clarified to contribute significantly to the dynamic lift acting on the butterfly. We should consider the interaction of both vortex ring both in downward flapping and in upward flapping in order to estimate the dynamic lift exactly using the circulation of the vortex ring.