Fire ant alate wing motion data and numerical reconstruction
1NCPA, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677
2USDA-ARS, Biological Control of Pests Research Unit, Stoneville, MS 38776
Abstract
The wing motions of a male and a female fire ant alate, which beat their wings at 108 and 96 Hz, respectively, were captured with a stereo imaging system at a high frame rate of 8,000 frames per second. By processing the high-speed image frames, the three-dimensional wingtip positions and the wing surface orientation angles were determined with a high phase resolution, i.e. 74 and 83 phases per period for the male and the female, respectively. A numerical reconstruction of the stereo wingbeat images demonstrated that the data collected described almost all the details of the wing surface motion, so that further computational fluid dynamic simulations are possible for fire ant alate flight.
Keywords:insect flight, stereo imaging, high-speed imaging, computational fluid dynamics, Solenopsis richteri, Solenopsis invicta
Abbreviation: a, trailing edge width; b, leading edge width; C ,wing length; CFD, computational fluid dynamics; fps, frames per second; FW, forewing; HW, hindwing; l, position at wing axis; L, H, wing surface coordinates; OT, wing axis; rmp, revolutions per minute; t, time in wingbeat period; T, wingbeat period; U, revolving velocity; Ur, relative velocity; V, air flow velocity; X, Y, Z, stereo image coordinates; x ,y, z, physical coordinates; X’,Y’,Z’, local coordinate; α, side view wing surface angle; ατ, attack angle; β, wingbeat stroke plane angle; γ, front view wing surface angle; φ, angular wing position; ϕ, wing rotational angle; Φ, wingbeat angular amplitude; ϕ*, wing angle in revolution surface; φmax, maximal angular position; φmin, minimal angular position; χ, body orientation angle
Correspondence: alcgui@olemiss.edu
Associate Editor: John Ewer was editor of this paper.
Received: 17 January 2008 | Accepted: 1 October 2008 | Published: 15 March 2010
Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 10, Number 19
Gui L, Fink T, Cao Z, Sun D, Seiner JM, Streett DA. 2010. Fire ant alate wing motion data and numerical reconstruction 17pp. Journal of Insect Science 10:19, available online: insectscience.org/10.19
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