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Leading-edge vortices over swept-back wings with varying sweep geometries

Micro air vehicles are used in a myriad of applications, such as transportation and surveying. Their performance can be improved through the study of wing designs and lift generation techniques including leading-edge vortices (LEVs). Observation of natural fliers, e.g. birds and bats, has shown that...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lambert, William B., Stanek, Mathew J., Gurka, Roi, Hackett, Erin E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6689613/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31417749
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190514
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author Lambert, William B.
Stanek, Mathew J.
Gurka, Roi
Hackett, Erin E.
author_facet Lambert, William B.
Stanek, Mathew J.
Gurka, Roi
Hackett, Erin E.
author_sort Lambert, William B.
collection PubMed
description Micro air vehicles are used in a myriad of applications, such as transportation and surveying. Their performance can be improved through the study of wing designs and lift generation techniques including leading-edge vortices (LEVs). Observation of natural fliers, e.g. birds and bats, has shown that LEVs are a major contributor to lift during flapping flight, and the common swift (Apus apus) has been observed to generate LEVs during gliding flight. We hypothesize that nonlinear swept-back wings generate a vortex in the leading-edge region, which can augment the lift in a similar manner to linear swept-back wings (i.e. delta wing) during gliding flight. Particle image velocimetry experiments were performed in a water flume to compare flow over two wing geometries: one with a nonlinear sweep (swift-like wing) and one with a linear sweep (delta wing). Experiments were performed at three spanwise planes and three angles of attack at a chord-based Reynolds number of 26 000. Streamlines, vorticity, swirling strength, and Q-criterion were used to identify LEVs. The results show similar LEV characteristics for delta and swift-like wing geometries. These similarities suggest that sweep geometries other than a linear sweep (i.e. delta wing) are capable of creating LEVs during gliding flight.
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spelling pubmed-66896132019-08-15 Leading-edge vortices over swept-back wings with varying sweep geometries Lambert, William B. Stanek, Mathew J. Gurka, Roi Hackett, Erin E. R Soc Open Sci Engineering Micro air vehicles are used in a myriad of applications, such as transportation and surveying. Their performance can be improved through the study of wing designs and lift generation techniques including leading-edge vortices (LEVs). Observation of natural fliers, e.g. birds and bats, has shown that LEVs are a major contributor to lift during flapping flight, and the common swift (Apus apus) has been observed to generate LEVs during gliding flight. We hypothesize that nonlinear swept-back wings generate a vortex in the leading-edge region, which can augment the lift in a similar manner to linear swept-back wings (i.e. delta wing) during gliding flight. Particle image velocimetry experiments were performed in a water flume to compare flow over two wing geometries: one with a nonlinear sweep (swift-like wing) and one with a linear sweep (delta wing). Experiments were performed at three spanwise planes and three angles of attack at a chord-based Reynolds number of 26 000. Streamlines, vorticity, swirling strength, and Q-criterion were used to identify LEVs. The results show similar LEV characteristics for delta and swift-like wing geometries. These similarities suggest that sweep geometries other than a linear sweep (i.e. delta wing) are capable of creating LEVs during gliding flight. The Royal Society 2019-07-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6689613/ /pubmed/31417749 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190514 Text en © 2019 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 Engineering
Lambert, William B.
Stanek, Mathew J.
Gurka, Roi
Hackett, Erin E.
Leading-edge vortices over swept-back wings with varying sweep geometries
title Leading-edge vortices over swept-back wings with varying sweep geometries
title_full Leading-edge vortices over swept-back wings with varying sweep geometries
title_fullStr Leading-edge vortices over swept-back wings with varying sweep geometries
title_full_unstemmed Leading-edge vortices over swept-back wings with varying sweep geometries
title_short Leading-edge vortices over swept-back wings with varying sweep geometries
title_sort leading-edge vortices over swept-back wings with varying sweep geometries
topic Engineering
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6689613/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31417749
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190514
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