The imitating flapping behaviour of mosquito using flexible wing model

The mosquito's wing is deforming during flapping stroke and the pitching angle is changed. The motion called “feathering motion” is considered that the wing is deformed passively by the aerodynamic force. But it is not established yet. In this paper, first, the bending stiffness of mosquito's wing for chord direction was measured with cantilever. Secondly, the flexible 10 times enlarged wing models which have same planar shape and wing area and different thickness were made with Polyphenylenesulfide resin films. Finally, the behavior of each enlarged wing models during flapping motion in the wind tunnel was measured and was compared with the motion of the real mosquito's wing. Then, both Reynold number and Strouhal number of model experiments were conformed to those of real mosquito. The results of measuring the bending stiffness of mosquito's wing for the chord direction showed the wide range values from 2 to 125 pNm2 and the averaged value of 53 pNm2. The results for the enlarged wing model showed that the amplitude of change of inclination angle during flapping motion decreased as the thickness of film increased. The enlarged wing model in which the bending stiffness was almost similar to that of real mosquito's wing showed the feathering motion like those of the real mosquito.