Color Coding Vortices to Understand Flapping Wing Propulsion (2015 Gallery of Fluid Motion APS DFD) from aml Watch Video

⏲ Duration: 1 min 80 sec
✓ Published: 07-Oct-2015

Description:
While airplanes rely on the steady motion of a wing to generate aerodynamic forces, animals use more intricate motions to propel themselves through fluids, both during swimming and flying. The flapping motions cause the surrounding air or water to swirl around the edges of the wing or fin, and the manipulation of these vortices is important for the forces generated. Of course, the flows around bird wings and fish fins are usually invisible to us, so we mimicked these types of motions in the labo