Numerical Investigation of the Aerodynamic Forces Induced by the Flow around Free Flying Fruit Fly

Kurzfassung

Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of free-flight maneuvers of a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is performed using the open source CFD code OpenFOAM . The fruit fly’s geometry and the kinematics are generated according to experimental studies by P. Schützner and F.-O. Lehmann in which the time series of spatial coordinates of the markers on the Drosophila’s body, head and wings were recorded. Based on the calculated velocity and pressure fields, we evaluated the vorticity and the forces acting on the wings. The analysis of the results obtained in the simulations confirms some experimentally observed lift enhancing mechanisms such as the leading edge vortex and rotational circulation. The wing-wake inetraction is also discussed.