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Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing
The diverse hummingbird family (Trochilidae) has unique adaptations for nectarivory, among which is the ability to sustain hover-feeding. As hummingbirds mainly feed while hovering, it is crucial to maintain this ability throughout the annual cycle—especially during flight-feather moult, in which wi...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Royal Society Publishing
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5579086/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28878971 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170183 |
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author | Achache, Yonathan Sapir, Nir Elimelech, Yossef |
author_facet | Achache, Yonathan Sapir, Nir Elimelech, Yossef |
author_sort | Achache, Yonathan |
collection | PubMed |
description | The diverse hummingbird family (Trochilidae) has unique adaptations for nectarivory, among which is the ability to sustain hover-feeding. As hummingbirds mainly feed while hovering, it is crucial to maintain this ability throughout the annual cycle—especially during flight-feather moult, in which wing area is reduced. To quantify the aerodynamic characteristics and flow mechanisms of a hummingbird wing throughout the annual cycle, time-accurate aerodynamic loads and flow field measurements were correlated over a dynamically scaled wing model of Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna). We present measurements recorded over a model of a complete wing to evaluate the baseline aerodynamic characteristics and flow mechanisms. We found that the vorticity concentration that had developed from the wing’s leading-edge differs from the attached vorticity structure that was typically found over insects’ wings; firstly, it is more elongated along the wing chord, and secondly, it encounters high levels of fluctuations rather than a steady vortex. Lift characteristics resemble those of insects; however, a 20% increase in the lift-to-torque ratio was obtained for the hummingbird wing model. Time-accurate aerodynamic loads were also used to evaluate the time-evolution of the specific power required from the flight muscles, and the overall wingbeat power requirements nicely matched previous studies. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5579086 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | The Royal Society Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-55790862017-09-06 Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing Achache, Yonathan Sapir, Nir Elimelech, Yossef R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) The diverse hummingbird family (Trochilidae) has unique adaptations for nectarivory, among which is the ability to sustain hover-feeding. As hummingbirds mainly feed while hovering, it is crucial to maintain this ability throughout the annual cycle—especially during flight-feather moult, in which wing area is reduced. To quantify the aerodynamic characteristics and flow mechanisms of a hummingbird wing throughout the annual cycle, time-accurate aerodynamic loads and flow field measurements were correlated over a dynamically scaled wing model of Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna). We present measurements recorded over a model of a complete wing to evaluate the baseline aerodynamic characteristics and flow mechanisms. We found that the vorticity concentration that had developed from the wing’s leading-edge differs from the attached vorticity structure that was typically found over insects’ wings; firstly, it is more elongated along the wing chord, and secondly, it encounters high levels of fluctuations rather than a steady vortex. Lift characteristics resemble those of insects; however, a 20% increase in the lift-to-torque ratio was obtained for the hummingbird wing model. Time-accurate aerodynamic loads were also used to evaluate the time-evolution of the specific power required from the flight muscles, and the overall wingbeat power requirements nicely matched previous studies. The Royal Society Publishing 2017-08-23 /pmc/articles/PMC5579086/ /pubmed/28878971 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170183 Text en © 2017 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Biology (Whole Organism) Achache, Yonathan Sapir, Nir Elimelech, Yossef Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing |
title | Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing |
title_full | Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing |
title_fullStr | Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing |
title_full_unstemmed | Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing |
title_short | Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing |
title_sort | hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. i. complete wing |
topic | Biology (Whole Organism) |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5579086/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28878971 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170183 |
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