Related papers: Intermittent turbulent gusts lift eagles
Biological flapping wing fliers operate efficiently and robustly in a wide range of flight conditions and are a great source of inspiration to engineers. The unsteady aerodynamics of flapping-wings are dominated by large-scale vortical…
Turbulent radiative mixing layers (TRMLs) play an important role in many astrophysical contexts where cool ($\lesssim 10^4$ K) clouds interact with hot flows (e.g., galactic winds, high velocity clouds, infalling satellites in halos and…
The nonlinear interaction of waves in a driven medium may lead to wave turbulence, a state such that energy is transferred from large to small lengthscales. Here, wave turbulence is observed in experiments on a vibrating plate. The…
Stretching and retracting wingspan has been widely observed in the flight of birds and bats, and its effects on the aerodynamic performance particularly lift generation are intriguing. The rectangular flat-plate flapping wing with a…
Turbulence, namely, irregular fluctuations in space and time characterize fluid flows in general and atmospheric flows in particular.The irregular,i.e., nonlinear space-time fluctuations on all scales contribute to the unpredictable nature…
We study the scaling behaviors in the wind velocity time series collected at the atmospheric surface layer and compare them with two commonly used cascade models, the truncated stable distribution and the log-normal model. Results show that…
Speed fluctuations of individual birds in natural flocks are moderate, due to the aerodynamic and biomechanical constraints of flight. Yet the spatial correlations of such fluctuations are scale-free, namely they have a range as wide as the…
A tentative scaling theory is presented of a tree swaying in a turbulent wind. It is argued that the turbulence of the air within the crown is in the inertial regime. An eddy causes a dynamic bending response of the branches according to a…
Vibration-based flow energy harvesting enables robust, in-situ energy extraction for low-power applications, such as distributed sensor networks. Fluid-structure instabilities dictate a harvester's viability since the structural response to…
Turbulence is a widely observed state of fluid flows, characterized by complex, nonlinear interactions between motions across a broad spectrum of length and time scales. While turbulence is ubiquitous, from teacups to planetary atmospheres,…
Flight on the two-dimensional air-water interface, with body weight supported by surface tension, is a unique locomotion strategy well adapted for the environmental niche on the surface of water. Although previously described in…
Insects and birds are often faced by opposing requirements for agile and stable flight. Here, we explore the interplay between aerodynamic effort, maneuverability, and stability in a model system that consists of a $\Lambda$-shaped flyer…
Small flexible fibers in a turbulent flow are found to be most of the time as straight as stiff rods. This is due to the cooperative action of flexural rigidity and fluid stretching. However, fibers might bend and buckle when they tumble…
Many traditional methods for wind turbine design and analysis assume quasi-steady aerodynamics, but atmospheric flows are inherently unsteady and modern turbine blades are susceptible to aeroelastic deformations. This study therefore…
When cloud particles are small enough, they move with the turbulent air in the cloud. On the other hand, as particles become larger their inertia affects their motions, and they move differently than the air. These inertial dynamics impact…
In order to understand the origin of observed molecular cloud properties, it is critical to understand how clouds interact with their environments during their formation, growth, and collapse. It has been suggested that accretion-driven…
Computational models of collective behavior in birds has allowed us to infer interaction rules directly from experimental data. Using a generic form of these rules we explore the collective behavior and emergent dynamics of a simulated…
This work reports an experimental characterisation of the flow properties in a homogeneous bubble swarm rising at high-Reynolds-numbers within a homogeneous and isotropic turbulent flow. Both the gas volume fraction {\alpha} and the…
Turbulent mixing and entrainment at the boundary of a cloud is studied by means of direct numerical simulations that couple the Eulerian description of the turbulent velocity and water vapor fields with a Lagrangian ensemble of cloud water…
The transition of the vortex pattern and the lift generated by a heaving wing in a uniform flow was investigated numerically. Motivated by insects' flight maneuverability, we studied the relationship between a temporal change in the heaving…