Aerodynamic effects of corrugation in flapping insect wings in forward flight

We have examined the aerodynamic effects of corrugation in model wings that closely mimic the wing movements of a forward flight bumblebee using the method of computational fluid dynamics. Various corrugated wing models were tested (care was taken to ensure that the corrugation introduced zero camber). Advance ratio ranging from 0 to 0.57 was considered. The results shown that at all flight speeds considered, the time courses of aerodynamic force of the corrugated wing are very close to those of the flat-plate wing. The corrugation decreases aerodynamic force slightly. The changes in the mean location of center of pressure in the spanwise and chordwise directions resulting from the corrugation are no more than 3% of the wing chord length. The possible reason for the small aerodynamic effects of wing corrugation is that the wing operates at a large angle of attack and the flow is separated: the large angle of incidence dominates the corrugation in determining the flow around the wing, and for separated flow, the flow is much less sensitive to wing shape variation.

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