RUI: Collaborative Research: Optimized design principles inspired by compliant natural propulsors.

高效率是在空气和水中移动的车辆的基本设计目标。 虽然大多数人类设计的推进器，如机翼或螺旋桨是刚性的，但天然的推进器通常是柔性的。自然飞行者和游泳者的推进效率通常高于类似重量和尺寸的人类设计的车辆。然而，模仿灵活的动物设计的尝试取得了有限的成功。最近的比较动物研究表明，在由非常不同的材料和非常不同的物理尺寸构成的广泛多样的游泳运动员和飞行员中，弯曲运动学的模式惊人地一致。这些模式包括从纤毛到鲸吸虫和从水到空气的流体状态。该项目将使用计算流体动力学和粒子图像测速技术来测量流体速度，以研究能够通过灵活的自然推进器产生高力的机械和流体动力学细节。 K-12外展活动计划在大学和卡布里洛水族馆在圣佩德罗，加利福尼亚州和本科生和研究生的参与是核心的研究项目。这个项目的目标是开发一套设计规则，管理力生产的柔性推进器。为了实现这一目标，实验和计算将被用于研究：a）作为涡量、压力场和推力的控制表面的推进器的弯曲运动学，B）产生压力场和推力的涡-涡相互作用的流体动力学基础和c）弯曲运动学的有利限制。每一个这些将使用实验（粒子图像测速）与自然生物和计算流体动力学模型的组合进行研究。该项目的结果将确定必要的设计标准，使性能增强弯曲推进器的不同类型和跨一系列的流体制度。在解释自然世界的同时，研究结果也将有助于从生物医学应用（纤毛）到交通工具设计（游泳，飞行）的新颖工程设计。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

High efficiency is a fundamental design goal of vehicles moving through both air and water. Although most human designs of propulsors such as wings or propellers are rigid, natural propulsors are generally flexible. Propulsive efficiencies of natural flyers and swimmers are typically higher than human-designed vehicles of similar weight and dimensions. However, attempts to emulate flexible animal designs have met with limited success. Recent comparative animal studies have demonstrated startlingly consistent patterns of bending kinematics among a broad diversity of swimmers and flyers constructed from very different materials and of very different physical dimensions. These patterns encompass cilia to whale flukes and fluid regimes from water to air. This project will use computational fluid dynamics and particle image velocimetry to measure fluid velocities to investigate the mechanical and fluid dynamic details that enable high force production by flexible natural propulsors. K-12 outreach activities are planned at the universities and at the Cabrillo Aquarium in San Pedro, CA and undergraduate and graduate student involvement is core to the research project. The goal of this project is to develop a set of design rules that govern force production by flexible propulsors. To achieve this goal, experiments and computations will be used to investigate: a) bending kinematics of propulsors as control surfaces of vorticity, pressure fields and thrust, b) the hydrodynamic basis of vortex-vortex interactions that generate pressure fields and thrust and c) the advantageous limits of bending kinematics. Each of these will be investigated using a combination of experiments (particle image velocimetry) with natural organisms and computational fluid dynamic models. The results of this project will define the necessary design criteria that enable performance enhancement by bending propulsors of different types and across a range of fluid regimes. While contributing to interpretation of the natural world, the results will also contribute to novel engineered designs ranging from biomedical applications (cilia) to vehicle design (swimming, flight).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.