Speaker:
Prof. Kenny Breuer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Brown University
Title:
Aero-mechanics of compliant membranes – from bat flight to flexible wings
Abstract:
Bats are capable of extremely maneuverable flight, enabled by the use of highly compliant membrane wings. Motivated by experiments in our lab on bat flight, we consider the fluid structure interactions between elastic membranes and their surrounding flow. Our work combines experiments on compliant membranes, their steady and unsteady behavior, along with a linearize theory that couples unsteady potential flow to a linear membrane equation. We look at the behavior of steady membranes as well as flapping wings. Lastly we will describe the use of active compliance – in which we dynamically control the tension of the membrane – to modify the interactions between the membrane and the separated shear layer that forms at the leading edge of the thin membrane wing.