Flapping wing aerodynamics of a numerical biological flyer model in hovering flight

Flapping flyers showcase excellent flight performances under many flight environments. In particular, hovering is a miracle of insects that can be seen for most of sizes of flying insects. Understanding of sizing or Reynolds numbers effects in hovering flights on the aerodynamics is not only of interest to the micro-air-vehicle ommunity but also of importance to comparative morphologists. In this study, a computational study of such size effects on insect hovering aerodynamics is conducted, which is performed using an integrated numerical framework consisting of the modeling of realistic wing-body morphology, the modeling of flapping-wing and body kinematics, and an in-house Navier-Stokes solver. Computational results of four typical insects in hovering flight including a thrips, a fruitfly, a honeybee, and a hawkmoth over a wide range of Reynolds numbers from O(10(1)) to O(10(4)) are presented. Furthermore the correlation among the near-and far-field flow features, the aerodynamic force production, and the wing kinematics is highlighted. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.