CAREER: An Integrated Study of Biological Fluid Dynamics in Nature

1055949 Dong机翼动态形态的变化直接影响瞬时气动力，从而影响飞行行为。由于大多数自然飞行者（如蜻蜓，蜂鸟等）虽然机翼都是柔性的或可变形的，但人们普遍认为，机翼柔性和机翼变形的机制可以提供比完全刚性机翼更好的气动力产生机制。这项拟议的研究旨在通过综合计算和实验方法来提高自由飞行动物的生物流体动力学知识。到目前为止，在动物自由飞行的研究中，很少有关于扑翼过程中3D机翼变形的详细测量和相关的空气动力学益处的工作。这主要是由于翅膀尺寸小、翅膀的快速运动以及飞行昆虫/鸟类的不可预测的运动，这使得很难对翅膀弯曲的细节进行高速视觉跟踪。为了使这项研究成为可能，目前正在开发两套技术组成的实验测量和计算流模拟/分析。配备了这些工具和进步，现在有可能揭示围绕复杂的飞行动力学和昆虫飞行背后的基本物理学的奥秘。智力价值：大多数以前的研究仅限于单一刚性扑翼的近场涡流形成机制。PI目前的研究探索了自由飞行的动物在全场涡流结构和相关的空气动力学变形扑翼连同机构。 涡结构和气动力之间的相关性的基本机制正在探索通过一个国家的最先进的沉浸边界计算流体动力学求解器和流场分析工具。与生物学家和实验学家合作，这项拟议的研究将对蜂鸟和天蛾等双翼飞行者以及蜻蜓和豆娘等四翼飞行者的翅膀形态和运动学进行比较研究。更好地了解动物翅膀变形如何影响飞行效率，以及移动翅膀如何影响周围的流体环境，将在动物的大小和物种之间发展。本工作旨在从低速低雷诺数流动物理和与可变形操纵面涡动力学相关的动力产生方面最终推进动物飞行空气动力学综合理论的发展。这项工作的方法和发现可以被不同领域的科学家用来以以前不可能的方式研究动物飞行的生物学方面，因此显着推进当前具有上级性能的扑翼微型飞行器的设计。更广泛的影响：这项拟议的研究将通过PI与合作者在生物学，应用数学和工程方面的专业知识之间的互动，加强研究和教育的基础设施。研究工作与教育和推广计划充分结合，以满足生物工程不断增长的教育需求。新的课程和动手高级顶点项目将开发，以吸引所有背景的学生在赖特州立大学，并利用来自其他机构的合作者。本研究项目的一个更积极的目标是建立一个基于Web的生物流体动力学相关活动的交互式平台，该平台不仅适用于工程研究界，而且适用于生物研究界，以及多层次的教师和学生。在这项拟议的工作中建立的工具有可能被用来研究其他低速低雷诺数流体动力学问题，如游泳，有效的风能转换，从阵风的损害预防，内部生物医学流体动力学应用等。

1055949DongChanges in the dynamic morphology of the wings directly affect the instantaneous aerodynamic forces and therefore flight behavior. As most natural fliers (e.g. dragonflies, hummingbirds and etc.) are equipped with flexible or deformable wings, it is widely believed that mechanism of wing flexibility and wing deformation can provide new mechanisms of aerodynamic force production over completely rigid wings. This proposed research intends to advance the knowledge of biological fluid dynamics in freely flying animals through an integrated computational and experimental approach. As of today, few works have been done on detailed measurements of 3D wing deformation during flapping and the associated aerodynamic benefits in the study of animal free flight. This is mainly due to the small wing size, fast motion of the wings, and unpredictable motion of flying insects/birds which makes it very hard to perform high-speed visual tracking of the details of wing flexions. To make this study possible, two sets of techniques composed of experimental measurement and computational flow simulation/analysis are currently being developed. Equipped with such tools and advancements, it is now possible to reveal the mysteries surrounding complex flight dynamics and the fundamental physics behind insect flight.Intellectual merit: Most previous studies were limited to near-field vortex formation mechanisms of a single rigid flapping wing. The PI's current research explores freely flying animals on full-field vortex structures and associated aerodynamics of deformable flapping wings together with bodies. The fundamental mechanism of correlation between vortex structures and aerodynamic force is being explored through a state-of-the-art immersed boundary computational fluid dynamics solver and fluid-field analysis tools. Teamed up with biologists and experimentalists, this proposed research will conduct comparative studies on wing morphology and kinematics for two-winged flyers such as hummingbirds and hawk moths, as well as four-winged flyers such as dragonflies and damselflies. A better understanding of how animal wing deformation impacts the efficiency of flight and how moving wings affect their ambient fluid environment will be developed across the animal sizes and species. This work intends to finally advance the development of a comprehensive theory of animal flight aerodynamics in the aspect of low speed low Reynolds number flow physics and dynamic force generation associated with vortex dynamics of deformable control surfaces. Methods and findings from this work could be used by scientists in different areas to study the biological aspects of animal flight in ways previously not possible, and therefore significantly advance the design of current flapping-wing micro air vehicles with superior performance. Broader impacts: This proposed research will enhance the infrastructure for research and education through the interactions between the PI and collaborators' expertise in biology, applied mathematics, and engineering, both nationally and internationally. The research effort fully integrates with an education and outreach program to meet the ever-increasing educational demands of bio-engineering. New courses and hands-on senior capstone projects will be developed to attract students of all backgrounds at Wright State University and be utilized by collaborators from other institutes. A more aggressive goal of this research project is to build a web-based interactive platform for biological fluid dynamics related activities, which is accessible to not only the engineering research community but also to the biological research community, as well as teachers and students at many levels. The tools built in this proposed work have the potential to be used to study other low speed low Reynolds number fluid dynamic problems such as swimming, efficient wind energy conversion, damage prevention from gusts, internal biomedical fluid dynamics applications and more.