Studying vortex interactions in water walking insects using physical and computational fluid dynamics

Amongst the genera of water walking insects, Microvelia and Mesovelia are some of the insects which locomote on both water and land effortlessly. Unlike Gerridae, these water walkers employ an alternating tripod gait in their locomotion. During power strokes, these insects generate pairs of counter-rotating vortices on either side from their middle and hind legs. In the case of microvelia, these vortices are sometimes re-energized during the strokes of hind legs, whereas such vortex interactions were absent in the locomotion of Mesovelia. We systematically studied a physical model to unveil the role of vortex interactions in these water walkers. Furthermore, we use computational fluid dynamics to gain an in-depth understanding of the fluid dynamics involved in such events involving vortices. In addition to the advancing the knowledge of fluid dynamics of water walking insects, we hope that these findings may lead to better designs of next generation amphibious micro-robots.