Approach to insect wing shape and deformation field measurement

Abstract

Summary StatementA fine shape and deformation field measurement of insect wing is achieved by a self-developed setup. This measurement could foster investigation of insect wing stiffness distribution.AbstractFor measuring the shape and deformation of insect wing, a scanning setup adopting line laser and coaxial LED light is developed. Wing shape can be directly acquired from the line laser images by triangulation. Yet the wing deformation field can also be obtained by a self-devised algorithm that processes the images from line laser and coaxial LED simultaneously. During the experiment, three wing samples from termite and mosquito under concentrated force are scanned. The venation and corrugation could be significantly identified from shape measurement result. The deformation field is sufficiently accurate to demonstrate its variation from wing base to tip. The load conditions in experiments are also be discussed. For softer wings, local deformation is apparent if pinhead is employed to impose force. The similarity analysis is better than 5% deformation ratio as a static criterion, if the wing is simplified as a cantilever beam. The setup is proved to be effective and versatile. The shape and deformation fields would give enough details for the measurement of wing stiffness distribution.