INVESTIGATION OF INSECT HOVERING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A FORCE ELEMENT THEORY

Bird or insect flight has been of great interest to general audience, not only to scientists. Numerous works have been devoted to the study of aerodynamics of insect wings, for example, the hovering flight. It is generally considered that the lift supporting the insect comes from the unsteadiness of the flight. However, the term "unsteadiness" itself is loose and imprecise at all. It may include several unsteady components: the motion of wing, vortex in the flow as well as the surface vorticity. The various contributions are now examined from the perspective of a force element theory to gain more insight into the mechanisms of generating lift.