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The image at the right is a contour plot of the vorticity generated by a two-dimensional model of an insect wing. Blue denotes clockwise vorticity and red denotes counterclockwise vorticity. The image shows the two downward moving vortices which generate the unsteady lift needed to keep insects such as dragonflies aloft.
A more complete discussion of the calculation can be found in the original article (Phys Rev Letters, September 4, 2000, Vol. 85(10), pp.2216-2219): the link may or may not work depending on whether you have access to the APS online articles. A less technical discussion can be found at Cornell's News site.
Click on the above image to see an animated gif of the vortex shedding process.
The above image was created by Professor Jane Wang at Cornell University who owns the copyright and kindly granted permission for its use here. Click on the image to see an animation ( 205 Kb ) of the vortex generation.
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