Experimental Analysis of the Ground Take-off Flight of a Butterfly

지면이륙하는 나비의 날개짓 분석

In the present work, high-speed video images of the ground take-off flight of a live butterfly were captured and their dynamic motions during the first full-stroke were analyzed. To capture the dynamic images of the take-off motion, the experimental setup consisted of a high-speed camera, a Xenon lamp as a light source and a transparent chamber of $15^W{\times}15^L{\times}17^H$ $cm^3$ in physical size. The ambient temperature and supplementary lighting devices were precisely controlled. The weight and wing span of the butterfly tested in this study was 104 mg and 63.14 mm, respectively. The ground take-off images were captured with 4000 fps with a spatial resolution of (1024${\times}$512) pixels. The period of the first full-stroke was 80.5ms and the flapping speed of downstroke was 2 times faster than that of upstroke. As a result, butterflies used the fling and near-clap motion to generate lifting force and an interesting take-off behavior of early pronation and downstroke was observed.