Structural Design of Biomimetic Wings

A comprehensive understanding of insect flight is vital for achieving successful designs of flapping micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs). This dissertation introduces a method for constructing structural models of insect wings that can provide significant aid for computational studies of insect flight. The method accurately captures the geometry of an insect wing from digital images, and constructs finite element models and reduced-order structural models. Structural models were constructed for butterfly forewings, and their accuracy was evaluated using a new experimental method that measures reduced-order structural compliance for insect wings. During experimental measurements, desiccation can cause considerable changes in the structural attributes of wing specimens.