Flight of the smallest insects
Duration: 39 mins 16 secs
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About this item
| Description: |
Miller, L
Thursday 21st September 2017 - 09:00 to 09:40 |
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| Created: | 2017-09-22 13:31 |
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| Collection: | Growth form and self-organisation |
| Publisher: | Isaac Newton Institute |
| Copyright: | Miller, L |
| Language: | eng (English) |
| Distribution: |
World
(downloadable)
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| Explicit content: | No |
| Aspect Ratio: | 16:9 |
| Screencast: | No |
| Bumper: | UCS Default |
| Trailer: | UCS Default |
| Abstract: | A vast body of re-search has described the complexity of flight in insects ranging from the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to the hawk moth, Manduca sexta. Over this range of scales, flight aerodynamics as well as the relative lift and drag forces generated are surprisingly similar. The smallest flying insects (Re~10) have received far less attention, although previous work has shown that flight kinematics and aerodynamics can be significantly different. In this presentation, we have used a multi-pronged approach that consists of measurements of flight kinematics in the tiny insect Thysanoptera (thrips), quantification of wing morphology, measurements of flow velocities and forces using physical models, and direct numerical simulations to compute flow and lift and drag forces. The lift to drag ratio during hovering flight decreases significantly as the Re decreases below 10. The clap and fling mechanism of lift generation does augment lift forces ~30%, however, peak drag can increase almost an order of magnitude due to viscous effects from wing-wing interaction. Bristles can reduce these peak forces, and may aid in passive flight behavior. |
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