Wing Morphology and Inertial Properties of Bumblebees

It is showIt is shown that the wings of bumblebees during flapping undergo pitching (feathering angle) rotation that can be characterized as a fluid-structure interaction problem. Measurements of shape, size and inertial properties of the wings of bumblebees Bombus ignitus are described that provide the necessary input data for numerical modelling. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver is combined with a dynamical model that describes the time evolution of the feathering angle. An example result of the numerical simulation is shown.n that the wings of bumblebees during flapping undergo pitching (feathering angle) rotation that can be characterized as a fluid-structure i …