A numerical study of the thrust generation from a honeybee wing model near the water surface

Water foraging honeybees have a tendency to fall into water causing them to lose their ability to sustain flight as they get their wings wet. Having fallen into water, these bees have a unique mechanism that enable them to utilise their wings as a hydrofoil to help propel them. Oscillating their wings in a specific pattern so as to keep only the ventral side of the wings wet, these bees produce ripples that help them propel themselves forward through the production of thrust. Using experimental data gathered by Roh and Gharib\cite{rg}, this paper explores the numerical modelling of the same experiment using similar wing kinematics. Utilizing a multiphase flow model with the overset framework from ANSYS Fluent and OpenFOAM, a comparison of the forces and flow-field patterns are evaluated. A correlation of the wave patterns with the generated forces is also conducted.