Creeping flow around a finite row of slender bodies in close proximity

The flow through and around a finite row of parallel slender bodies in close proximity moving in a viscous incompressible fluid is studied. The motion occurs under creeping flow ($\hbox{\it Re}\,{\ll}\,1$) conditions. This row is a model of a comb-wing configuration found in insects of the Thrips family and being developed for use for flying vehicles of mm size, operating in the creeping flow regime. We show here that such wings utilize viscous effects to carry along enough fluid to approximate continuous surfaces. The comb is described as a row of rod-like ellipsoids of slenderness ratio smaller than 0.01 at distances apart of order 10 times the minor axis and the flow field is computed by distributing singularities along the major axes of the ellipsoids. Results for the drag on the individual rods, as well as for the full row are presented. It is shown that above a certain number of rods, dependent on the geometric parameters of the comb, the row acts very much like a continuous surface, with over 95% of the flow moving around, and not through the comb. This allows a potential saving of tens of percents in wing weight. Parametric results for number of rods, rod density (ratio of inter-rod distance to rod length) and slenderness ratio are presented demonstrating the dependence of the flow field on the configuration. It is found that 50–80 rods are required to approach the asymptotic limit of large number of rods, for various combinations of rod parameters with inter-rod distances of order of the cross-section diameter.