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Effect of Forewing and Hindwing Interactions on Aerodynamic Forces and Power in Hovering Dragonfly Flight

2007; American Physical Society; Volume: 99; Issue: 14 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.99.148101

1092-0145

Z. Jane Wang, D. A. Russell,

Plasma and Flow Control in Aerodynamics

Dragonflies are four-winged insects that have the ability to control aerodynamic performance by modulating the phase lag ($\ensuremath{\phi}$) between forewings and hindwings. We film the wing motion of a tethered dragonfly and compute the aerodynamic force and power as a function of the phase. We find that the out-of-phase motion as seen in steady hovering uses nearly minimal power to generate the required force to balance the weight, and the in-phase motion seen in takeoffs provides an additional force to accelerate. We explain the main hydrodynamic interaction that causes this phase dependence.