Slegers Nathan, Heilman Michael, Cranford Jacob, Lang Amy, Yoder John, Habegger Maria Laura
Department of Mechanical Engineering, George Fox University, Newberg, OR 97132, USA.
Bioinspir Biomim. 2017 Jan 30;12(1):016013. doi: 10.1088/1748-3190/aa551d.
It is hypothesized that butterfly wing scale geometry and surface patterning may function to improve aerodynamic efficiency. In order to investigate this hypothesis, a method to measure butterfly flapping kinematics optically over long uninhibited flapping sequences was developed. Statistical results for the climbing flight flapping kinematics of 11 butterflies, based on a total of 236 individual flights, both with and without their wing scales, are presented. Results show, that for each of the 11 butterflies, the mean climbing efficiency decreased after scales were removed. Data was reduced to a single set of differences of climbing efficiency using are paired t-test. Results show a mean decrease in climbing efficiency of 32.2% occurred with a 95% confidence interval of 45.6%-18.8%. Similar analysis showed that the flapping amplitude decreased by 7% while the flapping frequency did not show a significant difference. Results provide strong evidence that butterfly wing scale geometry and surface patterning improve butterfly climbing efficiency. The authors hypothesize that the wing scale's effect in measured climbing efficiency may be due to an improved aerodynamic efficiency of the butterfly and could similarly be used on flapping wing micro air vehicles to potentially achieve similar gains in efficiency.
据推测，蝴蝶翅膀鳞片的几何形状和表面图案可能有助于提高空气动力学效率。为了验证这一推测，开发了一种在长时间无阻碍的扑翼序列中光学测量蝴蝶扑翼运动学的方法。本文给出了基于总共236次个体飞行的11只蝴蝶在有鳞片和无鳞片情况下攀爬飞行扑翼运动学的统计结果。结果表明，对于这11只蝴蝶中的每一只，去除鳞片后平均攀爬效率都有所下降。使用配对t检验将数据简化为一组攀爬效率差异。结果显示，攀爬效率平均下降了32.2%，95%置信区间为45.6%-18.8%。类似分析表明，扑翼幅度下降了7%，而扑翼频率没有显著差异。结果提供了有力证据，证明蝴蝶翅膀鳞片的几何形状和表面图案可提高蝴蝶的攀爬效率。作者推测，翅膀鳞片对测量到的攀爬效率的影响可能是由于蝴蝶空气动力学效率的提高，并且类似地可用于扑翼微型飞行器，以潜在地实现类似的效率提升。
