Effects of wing deformation on aerodynamic performance of a revolving insect wing

Flexible wings of insects and bio-inspired micro air vehicles generally deform remarkably during flapping flight owing to aerodynamic and inertial forces, which is of highly nonlinear fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems. To elucidate the novel mechanisms associated with flexible wing aerodynamics in the low Reynolds number regime, we have built up a FSI model of a hawkmoth wing undergoing revolving and made an investigation on the effects of flexible wing deformation on aerodynamic performance of the revolving wing model. To take into account the characteristics of flapping wing kinematics we designed a kinematic model for the revolving wing in two-fold: acceleration and steady rotation, which are based on hovering wing kinematics of hawkmoth, Manduca sexta. Our results show that both aerodynamic and inertial forces demonstrate a pronounced increase during acceleration phase, which results in a significant wing deformation. While the aerodynamic force turns to reduce after the wing acceleration terminates due to the burst and detachment of leading-edge vortices (LEVs), the dynamic wing deformation seem to delay the burst of LEVs and hence to augment the aerodynamic force during and even after the acceleration. During the phase of steady rotation, the flexible wing model generates more vertical force at higher angles of attack (40A degrees-60A degrees) but less horizontal force than those of a rigid wing model. This is because the wing twist in spanwise owing to aerodynamic forces results in a reduction in the effective angle of attack at wing tip, which leads to enhancing the aerodynamics performance by increasing the vertical force while reducing the horizontal force. Moreover, our results point out the importance of the fluid-structure interaction in evaluating flexible wing aerodynamics: the wing deformation does play a significant role in enhancing the aerodynamic performances but works differently during acceleration and steady rotation, which is mainly induced by inertial force in acceleration but by aerodynamic forces in steady rotation.