1134 A numerical study of dynamic flight stability of a flapping-flying insect
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A numerical study of dynamic flight stability of a hovering hawkmoth is presented. The method of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to compute the aerodynamic derivatives of the aerodynamic forces and pitching moment in response with a series of small disturbances and the techniques of eigenvalue and eigenvector analysis is used for solving the equations of motion. In the longitudinal disturbance motion, three natural modes are identified of a stable oscillatory mode, a stable fast subsidence mode and a stable slow subsidence mode, which indicate that the hawkmoth hovering flight is stable. In short, a hovering hawkmoth, if the motion is dynamically stable and the disturbance die out fast, might not need to make any adjustment with wing motion and will return to the equilibrium state 'automatically'.
