Title: Three-dimensional flow evaluation of monarch butterfly wing

Authors: Fadile Yudum Comez; Nevsan Sengil; Dilek Funda Kurtulus

Addresses: Aerospace Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey ' Astronautical Engineering Department, University of Turkish Aeronautical Association, Ankara, Turkey ' Aerospace Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

Abstract: The current study aims to examine the flow field around a monarch butterfly wing at different angles of attack. A fully opened forewing configuration for the monarch butterfly wing has been selected for analysis at a maximum chord length. To mimic the membrane of the real monarch butterfly wing, the thickness of the wings has been taken as 0.15 mm. In this study, the Reynolds number is calculated as 9,724 for a 5 m/s freestream velocity. The effect of the angle of attack has been investigated between α ∈ [0, 40°] with a 2° increment from 0° to 10°, and a 10° increment from 10° to 40°. The aerodynamic coefficients are compared with the experimental and numerical results available in the literature. Furthermore, the vortex dynamics for different angles of attack are investigated to understand leading-edge vortex deformation.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics; CFD; monarch butterfly; micro air vehicles; leading-edge vortex; LEV; unsteady aerodynamics.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2024.139335

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2024 Vol.24 No.4, pp.191 - 203

Received: 29 Nov 2022
Accepted: 06 May 2023
Published online: 01 Jul 2024 *

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