The generation of circulation and lift in a rigid two-dimensional fling

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Abstract
The instantaneous lift forces on a pair of rigid wings opening by rotation about a common trailing edge (the fling) are measured and related to the unsteady flow field as revealed by simultaneous flow visualization. The effect of altering the wing-opening time history and the initial opening angle of the wing pair on circulation and lift generation is investigated. Dimensionless circulations and lift coefficients are compared with experimental and theoretical results in the literature and the relevance of these results to insects and engineers is discussed.