Related papers: Miniature insect flight
At high incidence, low-aspect-ratio wings present a unique set of aerodynamic characteristics, including flow separation, vortex shedding, and unsteady force production. Furthermore, low-aspect ratio wings exhibit a highly impactful tip…
We reveal the effects of sweep on the wake dynamics around NACA 0015 wings at high angles of attack using direct numerical simulations and resolvent analysis. The influence of sweep on the wake dynamics is considered for sweep angles from…
Turbulence is omnipresent in the atmosphere and a long-standing scientific conundrum that makes flight complex. This complexity is little understood; surprisingly, when turbulence arises, air vehicles struggle while birds seem to thrive.…
The purpose of this work is to explain how wings work and how they were invented. We use the lens of history, looking at the individual people who wanted to fly, the lens of technology, looking at the key inventions leading up to modern…
Consider a flock of birds that fly interacting between them. The interactions are modelled through a hierarchical system in which each bird, at each time step, adjusts its own velocity according to his past velocity and a weighted mean of…
Numerical simulations of turbulent round jets, using explicit-filtered LES technique, are performed, for three different Reynolds numbers(Re = 3600, 88000, 400000), to understand the Reynolds number effect on subsonic jets with Mach number…
Undulatory locomotion, as seen in the nematode \emph{Caenorhabditis elegans}, is a common swimming gait of organisms in the low Reynolds number regime, where viscous forces are dominant. While the nematode's motility is expected to be a…
Minimising the energy consumption associated with periodic motion is a priority common to a wide range of technologies and organisms - among them, many species of flying insect, for which flapping-wing flight is a life-essential mode of…
As a bubble bursts at a liquid-air interface, a tiny liquid jet rises and can release the so-called \textit{jet drops}. In this paper, the size of the top jet drop produced by a bubble bursting is investigated experimentally. We determine,…
A three-dimensional round liquid jet within a low-speed coaxial gas flow is numerically simulated and explained via vortex dynamics ($\lambda_2$ method). The instabilities on the liquid-gas interface reflect well the vortex interactions…
Key features of the mechanical response of amorphous particulate materials, such as foams, emulsions, and granular media, to applied stress are determined by the frequency and size of particle rearrangements that occur as the system…
Inverted landing is a routine behavior among a number of animal fliers. However, mastering this feat poses a considerable challenge for robotic fliers, especially to perform dynamic perching with rapid body rotations (or flips) and landing…
This study investigates the aerodynamic performance and flow structures of infinite swept wings with artificially simulated discontinuous ice using an enhanced delayed detached-eddy simulation. Comparisons are made among clean,…
Biological functions in each animal cell depend on coordinated operations of a wide variety of molecular motors. Some of the these motors transport cargo to their respective destinations whereas some others are mobile workshops which…
Current development of micro-scale technologies increases the interest to viscous flows with low and moderate Reynolds numbers. This work theoretically studies the entrainment flow of a viscous jet emerging from a plane wall into a half…
Effective methods of fluid transport vary across scale. A commonly used dimensionless number for quantifying the effective scale of fluid transport is the Reynolds number, Re, which gives the ratio of inertial to viscous forces. What may…
We develop a highly efficient numerical method to simulate small-amplitude flapping propulsion by a flexible wing in a nearly inviscid fluid. We allow the wing's elastic modulus and mass density to vary arbitrarily, with an eye towards…
The effects of fluid viscosity on the kinematics of a small swimmer at low Reynolds number are investigated in both experiments and in a simple model. The swimmer is the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which is an undulating roundworm…
Insect monitoring is critical to improve our understanding and ability to preserve and restore biodiversity, sustainably produce crops, and reduce vectors of human and livestock disease. However, conventional monitoring methods of trapping…
Unmanned micro aerial vehicle research is an active area of development due to the vast potential applications. Prior work towards realizing flapping flight has achieved some success however they have relied heavily upon the use of rotary…