Author(s): Gabriel Tatu; Tiberiu Barbat
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: An intimate analysis of a bird's wing, more precisely of a feather, reveals a very interesting structure, resulted from millions of years of natural evolution. Understanding and learning from the feather structure can lead to both structural and fluid mechanics engineering applications. From the fluid mechanics point of view, relative to the aerodynamic lift force of the feather and, consequently, of the wings of a bird, the analysis reveals a permeable structure, which is improving considerably the flow around the wing's profile, giving it a better steadiness and augmenting the lifting force. Theoretical considerations on the aerodynamic effects of the permeable feather structure are presented in the paper, along with computational fluid dynamics modelling, enabling further research for applications.
Year: 2009