Abstract
This paper is concerned with the flapping of wings of a butterfly. The objective is to clarify the principle of a stable flapping-of-wings flight. First, an experimental system with a low-speed wind tunnel is constructed for fundamental data of flapping-of-wings motion, where the system measures aerodynamic force and motion simultaneously by a balance and a optical mesurement system. Secondly, a dynamics model of a butterfly is derived for analyses by Lagrange’s method, where the batterfly is considered as a rigid body system. A simple method is then applied to calculate the aerodynamic force. Finally, validity of the mathematical model is examined by comparing the measured data with the numerical results.
