Chapter 7

Moment of Inertia and Mutilation

Studies of an Insect Wing

N. Chari, Prasad Mukkavilli, A. G. Sarwade, and Kamalakar Pallela

Abstract Moment of inertial (MI) is the measure of resistance offered by a body

to change the rotational movement about an axis. The MI graph describes spanwise

distribution of wingmass and density. It forms the basis for the calculation of Kinetics

of a moving body. Strip analysis method is used for calculating, strip loading and

strip area. Study of MI, radius of gyration, kinetic energy, torque, and inertial power

helps in designing micro bio aerial vehicles. In soapnut bug, cutting the length of

the wing by 5–40%, increases the frequency by 50–110cps. Total energy has been

calculated for single wing which is about 135Ergs. MI formulae have been suggested

for different geometric shapes. Finally, translatory and rotatory motions have been

elucidated.

Keywords Moment of inertia · Wing mutilation · Geometrical wing shapes ·

Torque · KE · Translatory and rotatory motions · Angular velocity

Introduction

The study of Moment of Inertia (MI) of an insect wing helps us in understanding

Kinetic Energy (KE), torque (τ) and inertial power of the flier and properties of flight

surface. The MI graph will indicate the overall distribution of the mass of the wing

and density of the wing which decreases along the wingspan. MI study is important

to describe the angular motion of biological fliers. We usually study MI of the wing

with one degree of freedom; however, the wing moves in x, y and z directions in

nature.

N. Chari (B)

Department of Zoology, Kakatiya Unviersity, Warangal, A.P., India

P. Mukkavilli

SNIST, Hyderabad, India

A. G. Sarwade

MRCET, Hyderabad, India

K. Pallela

ECE Department, SNIST, Hyderabad, India

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021

N. Chari et al. (eds.), Biophysics of Insect Flight, Springer Series in Biophysics 22,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5184-7_7

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