Dynamic Characteristic of an Artificial Wing Mimicking a Beetle Hind Wing

Biomimetics is one of the most important paradigms as researchers seek to invent better engineering designs over human history. However, the observation of insect flight is a relatively recent work. Several researchers have tried to address the aerodynamic performance of flapping creatures and other natural properties of insects, although there are still many unsolved questions. In this study, we have attempted to investigate the structural dynamic characteristic of an artificial wing that mimicked the wing shape and main venation structure of a beetle hind wing using a non contact measurement method. The structural dynamic characteristic of the artificial wing was measured and compared to the real beetle hind wing by determining the natural frequencies and damping factor. The artificial wing was glued with the cyanoacrylate adhesive at the wing base onto the acrylic stand which was attached to the base of a shaker. The shaker produces the translation motion in the lateral direction of the wing plane. A non-contact laser sensor was used to measure the displacement history of the painted spots on the hind wing. A Bru¨el & Kjær FFT analyzer was adopted to calculate the frequency response functions where the natural frequencies of the wing structure can be extracted. The fundamental natural frequency of artificial wing is 51.3 Hz while the natural frequency of the beetle hind wing is 48.8 Hz. In addition, the wing structures were lightly damped with damping factor around 3.1% that is close to the one of beetle hind wing. We found that, in terms of the wing elasticity, the plastic wing frame of artificial wing was suitable for beetle-like flight.