Tiny flight-capable insects such as thrips utilize a drag-based mechanism to generate a net vertical force to support their weight, owing to the low associated Reynolds number. Evaluating the drag generated by such small wings is of considerable significance to understand the flight of tiny insects. In this study, a self-sensing microcantilever was used to measure the drag force generated by an actual wing of a thrip. The wing of a thrip was attached to the tip of the microcantilever, and the microcantilever along with the wing was affixed perpendicular to a constant airflow at the middle of a bench-top wind tunnel. The drag generated by the wing under airflow velocities in the range of 0–4.8 m/s was obtained. In addition, the drag generated by the wing was verified by performing a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics analysis. At a biological average wing tip velocity of 0.7 m/s, the difference between the measured drag force (290 nN) and calculated drag force (300 nN) was merely 3.3%. This new approach of evaluating the drag force generated by tiny insects could contribute to enhancing the understanding of microscale flight.
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Evaluation of drag force of a thrip wing by using a microcantilever
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14 December 2019
Research Article|
December 10 2019
Evaluation of drag force of a thrip wing by using a microcantilever
Peng Zhao
;
Peng Zhao
a)
1
Institute of Bionics and Micro-nano Systems, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University
, Beijing 100191, China
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Zihao Dong;
Zihao Dong
a)
1
Institute of Bionics and Micro-nano Systems, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University
, Beijing 100191, China
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Yonggang Jiang
;
Yonggang Jiang
b)
1
Institute of Bionics and Micro-nano Systems, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University
, Beijing 100191, China
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Hao Liu;
Hao Liu
2
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Beihang University
, Beijing 100191, China
3
Graduate School of Engineering, Chiba University
, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
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Hongying Hu;
Hongying Hu
4
College of Life Science and Technology, Xinjiang University
, Urumqi 830046, China
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Yinfang Zhu;
Yinfang Zhu
5
Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences
, Beijing 100083, China
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Deyuan Zhang
Deyuan Zhang
1
Institute of Bionics and Micro-nano Systems, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University
, Beijing 100191, China
2
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Beihang University
, Beijing 100191, China
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a)
Contributions: P. Zhao and Z. Dong contributed equally to this work.
b)
Email: jiangyg@buaa.edu.com.
J. Appl. Phys. 126, 224701 (2019)
Article history
Received:
September 03 2019
Accepted:
November 09 2019
Citation
Peng Zhao, Zihao Dong, Yonggang Jiang, Hao Liu, Hongying Hu, Yinfang Zhu, Deyuan Zhang; Evaluation of drag force of a thrip wing by using a microcantilever. J. Appl. Phys. 14 December 2019; 126 (22): 224701. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5126617
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