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A two-component dynamic wind tunnel balance for mounted insects

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1980 J. Phys. E: Sci. Instrum. 13 61

(http://iopscience.iop.org/0022-3735/13/1/017)

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J. Phys. E: Sci. Instrum., Vol. 13, 1980. Printed in Great Britain

A two-component dynamic
wind tunnel balance
for mounted insects

Figure 1 Diagram of the jet and the taut string. The insect
is mounted on the wire midpoint which is positioned at the
centre of the rectangular jet. The insect is mounted
approximately 75 mm from the exit plane of the extension
section (length scales are not mutually consistent). Wind
tunnel contraction ratio 17: 1 (dimensions in millimetres).

Richard H Buckholzi
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, signals. Vertical and horizontal displacements corresponding
USA to the lift and drag force components are almost isolated via
the perpendicular laser intensity gradients used (figure 1). This
Received 28 February 1979, in final form 18 June 1979 method uses the sharp radial intensity gradients found in the
circular cross-section of laser beams with Gaussian distribu-
Abstract A dynamic force balance has been developed for tions of intensity. Each beam is aimed perpendicular to the
the measurement of the instantaneous lift and drag wire so that the wire cuts a chord line across the region of
components of an insect flying fixed in a wind tunnel. The flattest intensity gradient (figures 2 and 3).
force balance is a simple taut ‘string’ with fixed ends; in this
work a live insect is mounted near the string midpoint. The
miniscule wire displacements due to imposed forces are
optically detected and interpreted as forces by an electro-
magnetic calibration procedure. The system response is
strongly frequency-dependent, but this posed no serious
problem for the measurement of periodic forces such as lift
and drag fluctuations due to wing beat.
c r o s s - s e c t 31
c r
D
L
Photodicde

-
\ L a s e r becm

1 Introduction ~ i 5 3 mirror

Although mean forces generated by insects flying fixed in

wind tunnels have been measured (e.g. Weis-Fogh 1956,
Vogel 1966), the fluctuating force apparently has not been. Figure 2 Typical optical set-up for transduction of vertical
Many laboratory force balances lack the sensitivity and wire deflection (length scales are not mutually consistent).
frequency response required for such measurements. Because
of interest in the fluctuating part of the insect-generated force,
the following apparatus was developed.
A taut string with an insect tethered near the midsection is
used as a force balance. During flapping flight the attached
insect exerts a periodic force on the air and on the wire. The
latter force produces extremely small but detectable wire
displacements. If the insect centre of gravity were perfectly
fixed, the sum of its aerodynamic force and wing inertia force
would be precisely equal and opposite to that transmitted to I 3 Idecl l a s e r
the wire, but if appreciable acceleration occurs then a full
dynamic analysis by Newton‘s second law would be needed to
i-i intnrsity profile
Lcse- k e c n

interpret the balance output. Fortunately this ‘correction’ can

be circumvented by matching the motion of the centre of mass
during a dynamic calibration process. Throughout the flight Figure 3 Typical optical set-up for transduction of
tests the centre of mass displacements were observed to be horizontal wire deflection (length scales are not mutually
small compared with the wing chord. consistent).

2 The apparatus
At two points along the wire the horizontal and vertical wire
displacements are optically transformed into two electrical
+ Present Address : Engineering Science Department, Cali-
fornia Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91 125,
USA.
Vertical and horizontal displacements are measured at
separate points along the wire to minimise the interaction
between the two scattered laser beams. Partially back scattered
light is collected for the vertical displacements (figure 2) and
side-scattered light for the horizontal displacements (figure 3).
If the wire displacement is small enough, the voltage ouput
of the photodiode circuit will be linearly dependent upon the

0022-3735/80/010061+03 $01.00 0 1980 The Institute of Physics 61

Richard H Buckholz
displacement. Amplitudes which become appreciable com-
pared with beam diameter will lead to waveform distortion of
the input signal to the photodiode. The wire is given enough
tension and the laser is positioned such that the maximum
displacement encountered will not produce such an ambiguous
signal.
Ideally the absolute intensity of the laser should remain
constant. The model 120 Spectra Physics laser was selected
since the intensity remains relatively fixed over the time
interval of an experiment, The light scattered from the wire
is detected using p-i-n 10 United Detector Technology
photodiodes and data are collected and processed by a PDP
11/40.
3 Sensitivity considerations
The overall sensitivity of the balance obviously depends upon
the total laser beam energy, the radial intensity gradient, the
wire thickness and density, the spanwise location of the
scattering section, the wire shape and albedo, the effective
elastic ‘constant’ of the taut wire, and the insect mass. The
voltage signal from the photodiode should be large enough to
operate the electronic measuring system, and be conveniently
large compared with the extraneous noise and drift in the
amplification system. With a limit in the total beam energy
set by the laser model available, it is desirable to optimise the
wire size and displacement and to maximise the albedo.
Upper bounds on the wire size are set by the need to minimise
mass, to maintain linearity within the (curved) beam intensity
profile, and to have detectable displacement. An upper bound
on the usable displacement at the beam location is also set by
the need to maintain linearity.
Among the relevant dimensionless numbers are the ratios
of wire diameter to beam diameter and wire motion amplitude
to beam diameter. The laser beam diameter is nominally
1 mm: the present wire diameter is 89 pm, giving a ratio of 11.
The wire amplitude is a continuous function of position along
its length, so the required upper bound is easily met by
directing the beam as close as necessary to a fixed end-point.
In the particular arrangement used, it is estimated that a
displacement equivalent to 20% of the beam diameter is the
maximum allowable to maintain satisfactory linearity.
4 Wire drag and Reynolds number dependence
Unfortunately the aerodynamic force on the wire is not
negligible compared with the force exerted by the fly. The wire
can be well approximated as a circular cylinder immersed in
an almost uniform two-dimensional flow. Due to the shear
layer between the jet and resting air, the velocity field decreases
to zero continuously near the edge of the jet.
When the undisturbed velocity field is uniform and steady
the flow around the circular cylinder is dependent solely upon
the Reynolds number of the motion; this result is easily
obtained by a non-dimensionalisation of the steady incom-
pressible Navier-Stokes equations.
The transitionary nature of this flow should be recalled. In
uniform steady flow the wake changes from steady to unsteady
at a Reynolds number (based on diameter) of 40 (e.g. Kovasz-
nay 1949,Tritton 1959). This phenomenon is the ‘von Karman-
Benard vortex street’ in the wake of the cylinder. At Reynolds
numbers near 150 this uniform structure begins to break down
and some turbulence is produced in the wake. According to
Kovasznay (1949), an earlier transition occurs at Reynolds
number 90; however, the periodic structure is maintained
through this transition. The wire diameter in this balance is
normally 89 pm. Velocities associated with steady forward
blowfly flight are typically in the 1-5 m s-1 range, so the wire
Reynolds number of interest is in the range 6-30. In fact, the
62
wire diameter was chosen small enough to avoid the (unsteady)
von Karman-Benard vortex street. With 120 mm of wire
exposed to the wind and an estimated drag coefficient of 2.0
(Tritton 1959), the drag is 25 pN at 1 m s-1, and 30 mN at
5 m s-1.
A typical blowfly form drag can be estimated a priori by
assuming that the drag coefficient is about equal to that of a
sphere at the same Reynolds number. However, the drag of a
sphere at 2.5 m s-1 is 50 pN, which is smaller than the 95 p N
estimated wire drag at this speed. The significance of this
comparison is that wire drag must be accounted for when
measuring the blowfly drag.
Another aspect of the wind-wire interaction is the possible
damping caused by the air moving over the wire. If this effect
is thought of in the context of a linear oscillator, it may shift
the natural frequencies slightly, and thus change the frequency
response. This effect is probably negligible.
5 Calibration methods
The displacement signals are calibrated to known static and
dynamic forces by an electromagnetic technique. The force
applied to the wire can be determined from the relation
F = i fl1Bxdl
where B is the magnetic field strength, i is wire current, A4is
wire length, and d l is the length element and direction of the
wire.
The quantity 1.y B x dl can be evaluated by orienting the
magnetic field perpendicular to the gravitational field and the
wire and passing the wire horizontally between the magnetic
pole faces. The orthogonality allows JAl B x dl to be written
as the scalar integral 1-1Bdl. Hence a linear relationship exists
between the vertical force on the wire and the current through
the wire. The constant [-\Bdl is evaluated statically by placing
a sequence of known weights on the wire and adjusting the
current to a value which makes the wire displacement zero at
the point of measurement. The deflection of the wire is small
compared with the pole gap, so it is reasonable to assume that
the magnetic field remains unchanged over the working range
of loads.
By use of the linear relationship of current with force, the
static calibration is determined by passing a direct current
through the wire. In principle, the average deflection generated
by the mounted insect during flapping flight can be matched
by application of a known force. The dynamic calibration is
carried out by passing a periodic current of controlled
amplitude and frequency through the wire. At each discrete
excitation frequency the peak-to-peak input amplitude can be
adjusted so that the electrical signal matches the known signal
caused by the flying insect. The phase shift between the
applied periodic force and the measured wire displacement
signal was also measured and used in the reconstruction of the
force produced by the flying insect. The insect remains attached
to the wire during the calibration so that the dynamic response
of the system remains unchanged.
Caution must be taken to avoid excitation of the natural
frequencies of the system. Such excitation will lead to intract-
ably large amplitudes, for which calibration curves cannot be
measured accurately and for which the reponse will be appre-
ciably nonlinear. The calibration procedure is carried out for
the vertical deflection, and then for the horizontal deflection
by rotating the magnetic field through 90”.
As a test of the system, the bare wire drag was measured as
a function of the airstream velocity. The drag for the circular
cylinder as a function of Reynolds number was determined for
Reynolds numbers in the range 6-20. The two-dimensional
A two-component dynamic wind tunnel balance for mounted iizsects
approximation is justifiable since the aspect ratio? is nominally
1000. Free shear layers at the jet edges were ignored, and the
drag results were compared with those of Tritton (1959)
(figure 4).
The electromechanical constant; is determined first, using
the vertical deflection channel and a known set of weights; this
parameter is a constant, independent of the direction selected
for its measurement, The wire is then loaded by an airstream
of known velocity along the section exposed to the wind.
Acknowledgments
I should like to thank Professor S Corrsin who jointly
conceived the system and reviewed this typescript. I should
also like to thank Mr M Walker and Mr D Walker for their
advice on electronics and optics, Dr R Powell for help with our
laboratory computer, and Professor T Y Wu for his typescript
suggestions. This work was supported by the National Science
Foundation, Engineering Mechanics and Biophysical Fluid
Mechanics Programs.

References
Kovasznay L S G 1949 Hot-wire investigations of the wake
behind cylinders at low Reynolds numbers
Proc. R. Soc. A 198 174-90
Tritton D J 1959 The flow past a circular cylinder at low
Reynolds numbers
J. Fluid Mech. 6 547-67
Vogel S 1966 Flight in Drosophilia I. Flight performance of
tethered flies
J. Exp. Biol. 44 567-78
Weis-Fogh T 1956 Biology and physics of locust flight. 11.
Flight performance of the desert locust (Schistocerca
gregaria)
Phil. Trans. B 239 459-510
1 1 I I I
0 C e 1 6 2 4 3 2
Spae3 [ n 5-'1

Figure 4 Comparison of new data, E, with Tritton's data,

2.for the force on the wire as a function of air speed.
Data are fitted to second-order polynomials by a least-
squares orthogonal polynomial routine.

Subsequently, streamwise deflections are measured and

corresponding streamwise forces are determined by using the
electromechanical constant and by the electromagnetic
deflection technique.

6 Experimental results
The drag on a circular cylinder was measured as a function of
the uniform flow speed for speeds from 0.9 to 3.2 m s-l. A
lower bound of 0.9 m s-1 was selected because the wind tunnel
failed to maintain a constant speed below this. The upper
bound of 3.2 m s-1 is less than the transition speed for 'ion
Karman-Benard instabilities.
Figure 4 shows several of Tritton's (1959) data points and
the new data; second-order polynomial fits for both sets are
also shown for comparison. There is some disagreement in the
lower speed range; 1.0-2.0 m s-1. According to Tritton (1959),
the previous experimental results do not agree with one
another below a Reynolds number of about 20, which is
equivalent to 3.3 m s-1 in the experiment described in this
paper. The disagreement is of minor importance since the
operating range is within 2.0 m s-l and the difference of 10 pN
is about 20/, of the insect weight which is nominally 0.5 mN.
In view of the measuring system, errors of 10% or less are
considered as acceptable.
The root mean square of the least-squares second-order
polyaomial (fitted and smoothed by orthogonal polynomials),
shown in figure 4 for the new data, is 1.7 pN.

t The aspect ratio referred to is the length of the wire loaded

by the airstream divided by the diameter of the wire.
$ Defined as Bdl.

63