EAPSI: How Bats Drink While Flying: Lessons for the Design of a Water Skimming Air Vehicle

许多蝙蝠在水体上方捕食。在这种高能量的狩猎活动中，它们会俯冲到水面，拖着舌头在水面上把水溅到嘴里，同时保持飞行的稳定性。这种在飞行时饮酒的行为在本质上是独一无二的，可以让我们深入了解能够快速采样大型水体的飞行器的设计。为了研究蝙蝠的这种行为，他们将在实验室里用一系列高速摄像机拍摄蝙蝠喝水的过程。实验将在山东大学进行？弗吉尼亚理工大学国际实验室在济南，中国与罗尔夫·穆勒博士合作，在蝙蝠生理形式和功能和蝙蝠生物声纳系统的专家。蝙蝠饮水的运动学和流体动力学在自然界是无与伦比的，迄今尚未被研究。将在实验室环境中进行生物实验，以表征蝙蝠饮水时的攻击角度、速度、头部和身体位置以及舌头运动等饮水参数。从流体动力学的角度来看，了解空气/水界面和口/舌之间的相互作用是必不可少的。飞溅的性质以及有多少水被输送到口中将使用高速相机阵列来表征。拟议实验的目标是开发一个独特的蝙蝠飞行时饮酒行为的物理框架，可以为设计撇水飞行器提供见解。该NSF EAPSI奖支持美国研究生的研究，并与中国科技部合作资助。

Many bats hunt prey over bodies of water. During this high-energy hunting activity they hydrate themselves by swooping down to the water surface and dragging their tongue across the surface to splash water into the mouth all while maintaining flight stability. This drinking while flying behavior is unique in nature and could give insight into the design of an air vehicle capable of quickly sampling large bodies of water. To study this behavior bats will be filmed while drinking in a lab with an array of high-speed cameras. Experiments will be conducted at the Shandong University ? Virginia Tech International Laboratory in Jinan, China in collaboration with Dr. Rolf Mueller, an expert in bat physiological form and function and bat biosonar systems. The kinematics and fluid dynamics of bat drinking are unparalleled in nature and have not been investigated as of yet. Biological experiments in a laboratory setting will be performed to characterize drinking parameters like the angle of attack, velocity, head and body position, and tongue movement of the bats while they drink. From the fluid dynamics perspective, understanding the interplay between the air/water interface and mouth/tongue is essential. The nature of the splash and how much water is transported into the mouth will be characterized using a high-speed camera array. The goal of proposed experiments is to develop a physical framework of the distinctive bat drinking while flying behavior that could give insights into the design of a water-skimming air vehicle. This NSF EAPSI award supports the research of a U.S. graduate student and is funded in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.