A CFD-based, Biology-inspired Dynamic Flight Simulator

摘要

Biological system in swimming and flying is, in general, of 'Complex Systems', although some mechanisms behind it may be quite simple if unveiled, but it needs to be modeled as realistic as possible so that we could avoid some pitfalls. Conventional paradigm for understanding of power and energetics in swimming and flying relies exclusively on the consistent potential theories to analyze the physics qualitatively as well as the observations and measurements to visualize the flow so as to support the theories. We have proposed a new paradigm of the simulation-based biological fluid dynamics, which, by means of computational modeling of biofluid dynamics through faithful reconstruction of morphology and representation of realistic kinematics of individual object, shows great potential to elucidate the physics and mechanisms in the complicated biological fluid phenomena. In this paper we give a detailed description of the simulation-based biological fluid dynamics as well as applications in animal locomotion, with a special focus on an undergoing project: development of a biology-inspired dynamic flying simulator. In this project we aim at establishing an integrated computational mechanical simulator for a freely flying insect, which is capable to mimic the free flights involving hovering, forward flight and quick-turn based on realistically modeling of geometry and kinematics and accurately modeling of dynamics. It is expected that the developed simulator would provide also novel theories and technical innovations for research and development in the Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs).