Casey Cailin B, Cote Braden, Heveran Chelsea, Jankauski Mark
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA.
J R Soc Interface. 2025 Sep;22(230):20250074. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2025.0074. Epub 2025 Sep 17.
Flapping wing insects leverage the dynamics of their compliant flight systems to reduce the energetic costs of flying. However, the extent to which the wing hinge dynamics contribute to the overall system dynamics remains unknown. Therefore, we developed an approach to (i) quantify the passive dynamic properties of the wing hinge and (ii) identify the resonant frequency of the isolated wing/wing hinge system. First, we measured the frequency response relating thorax deformation to wing stroke angle in sacrificed honeybees and army cutworm moths. Using these data, we developed a linear model of the flight system, which we then extended to incorporate nonlinear effects associated with large wing stroke angles. Our findings revealed that both species flap below the linear resonance of the wing hinge. At larger angles, nonlinear aerodynamic damping reduces the resonant frequency, causing both species to flap above wing hinge resonance. We discuss how wing-thorax coupling and muscle dynamics may cause the resonant frequency of the entire flight system to deviate from that of the wing/wing hinge system. Our estimates of wing hinge stiffness and damping provide quantitative parameters that can be incorporated into models of the insect flight system to enable more accurate predictions of resonance behaviour.
扑翼昆虫利用其柔顺飞行系统的动力学特性来降低飞行的能量消耗。然而，翅铰链动力学对整个系统动力学的贡献程度尚不清楚。因此，我们开发了一种方法，（i）量化翅铰链的被动动力学特性，（ii）识别孤立的翅膀/翅铰链系统的共振频率。首先，我们测量了在已牺牲的蜜蜂和小地老虎蛾中，胸部变形与翅膀冲程角度之间的频率响应。利用这些数据，我们建立了一个飞行系统的线性模型，然后将其扩展以纳入与大翅膀冲程角度相关的非线性效应。我们的研究结果表明，这两个物种的拍打频率都低于翅铰链的线性共振频率。在较大角度时，非线性气动阻尼会降低共振频率，导致这两个物种的拍打频率高于翅铰链共振频率。我们讨论了翅膀与胸部的耦合以及肌肉动力学如何可能导致整个飞行系统的共振频率偏离翅膀/翅铰链系统的共振频率。我们对翅铰链刚度和阻尼的估计提供了定量参数，可纳入昆虫飞行系统模型中，以更准确地预测共振行为。
