Numerical assessment of wake-based estimation of instantaneous lift in flapping flight of large birds.
Experimental characterization of bird flight without instrumenting the animal requires measuring the flow behind the bird in a wind tunnel. Models are used to link the measured velocities to the corresponding aerodynamic forces. Widely-used models can, however, prove inconsistent when evaluating the...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2023-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284714 |
| _version_ | 1797828122896236544 |
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| author | Victor Colognesi Renaud Ronsse Philippe Chatelain |
| author_facet | Victor Colognesi Renaud Ronsse Philippe Chatelain |
| author_sort | Victor Colognesi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Experimental characterization of bird flight without instrumenting the animal requires measuring the flow behind the bird in a wind tunnel. Models are used to link the measured velocities to the corresponding aerodynamic forces. Widely-used models can, however, prove inconsistent when evaluating the instantaneous lift. Yet, accurately estimating variations of lift is critical in order to reverse-engineer flapping flight. In this work, we revisit mathematical models of lift based on the conservation of momentum in a control volume around a bird. Using a numerical framework to represent a flapping bird wing and compute the flow around it, we mimic the conditions of a wind tunnel and produce realistic wakes, which we compare to experimental data. Providing ground truth measurements of the flow everywhere around the simulated bird, we assess the validity of several lift estimation techniques. We observe that the circulation-based component of the instantaneous lift can be retrieved from measurements of velocity in a single plane behind a bird, with a latency that is found to depend directly on the free-stream velocity. We further show that the lift contribution of the added-mass effect cannot be retrieved from such measurements and quantify the level of approximation due to ignoring this contribution in instantaneous lift estimation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T12:59:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7649195675e14ae6bdaee49496a5ab58 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T12:59:12Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-7649195675e14ae6bdaee49496a5ab582023-05-13T05:31:06ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032023-01-01185e028471410.1371/journal.pone.0284714Numerical assessment of wake-based estimation of instantaneous lift in flapping flight of large birds.Victor ColognesiRenaud RonssePhilippe ChatelainExperimental characterization of bird flight without instrumenting the animal requires measuring the flow behind the bird in a wind tunnel. Models are used to link the measured velocities to the corresponding aerodynamic forces. Widely-used models can, however, prove inconsistent when evaluating the instantaneous lift. Yet, accurately estimating variations of lift is critical in order to reverse-engineer flapping flight. In this work, we revisit mathematical models of lift based on the conservation of momentum in a control volume around a bird. Using a numerical framework to represent a flapping bird wing and compute the flow around it, we mimic the conditions of a wind tunnel and produce realistic wakes, which we compare to experimental data. Providing ground truth measurements of the flow everywhere around the simulated bird, we assess the validity of several lift estimation techniques. We observe that the circulation-based component of the instantaneous lift can be retrieved from measurements of velocity in a single plane behind a bird, with a latency that is found to depend directly on the free-stream velocity. We further show that the lift contribution of the added-mass effect cannot be retrieved from such measurements and quantify the level of approximation due to ignoring this contribution in instantaneous lift estimation.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284714 |
| spellingShingle | Victor Colognesi Renaud Ronsse Philippe Chatelain Numerical assessment of wake-based estimation of instantaneous lift in flapping flight of large birds. PLoS ONE |
| title | Numerical assessment of wake-based estimation of instantaneous lift in flapping flight of large birds. |
| title_full | Numerical assessment of wake-based estimation of instantaneous lift in flapping flight of large birds. |
| title_fullStr | Numerical assessment of wake-based estimation of instantaneous lift in flapping flight of large birds. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Numerical assessment of wake-based estimation of instantaneous lift in flapping flight of large birds. |
| title_short | Numerical assessment of wake-based estimation of instantaneous lift in flapping flight of large birds. |
| title_sort | numerical assessment of wake based estimation of instantaneous lift in flapping flight of large birds |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284714 |
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