Tumbling Dynamics of Passive Flexible Wings

The influence of flexibility on the flight of autorotating winged seedpods is examined through an experimental investigation of tumbling rectangular paper strips freely falling in air. Our results suggest the existence of a critical length above which the wing bends. We develop a theoretical model t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tam, Daniel, Bush, John W. M., Robitalle, Michael, Arshad, Kudrolli
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Physical Society 2010
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/58773
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7936-7256