This paper will explore the methods and techniques necessary to perform a more accurate CFD validation of experimental results. The methods and techniques used will be validated against experimental wind tunnel data of a 2D high lift airfoil with a 3D engine performed by Georgia Tech Research Institute. Preliminary results showed that computational methods over predict the lift and drag coeffic...

During forward flight, a bird's body generates drag that tends to decelerate its speed. By flapping its wings, or by converting potential energy into work if gliding, the bird produces both lift and thrust to balance the pull of gravity and drag. In flight mechanics, a dimensionless number, the body drag coefficient (C(D,par)), describes the magnitude of the drag caused by the body. The drag co...

A parallel genetic algorithm (GA) was used to generate, in a single run, a family of aerodynamically efficient, low-noise rotor blade designs representing the Pareto optimal set. The n-branch tournament, uniform crossover genetic algorithm operates on twenty design variables, which constitute the control points for a spline representing the airfoil surface. The GA takes advantage of available c...

This work was motivated by subtidal observations of red urchins (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) moving their spines into streamlined positions as water current increased in the field. Trials in a flume across flow speeds from 0 to 65 cm s(-1) enabled us to observe the change in overall shape of the urchins and quantify the decrease in spine angle that occurred as flow speeds increased. The ef...

In order to predict the structural responses under random wind loads to avoid catastrophe failures, structural dynamic analysis is necessary, which requires a reasonable description of wind loads on structures. Based on the equations of fluid mechanics, equations for aerodynamic forces for structures in motion and coefficients of drag, lift and pitching moment for static structures are derived ...

The jet mixing of a co-flow jet (CFJ) airfoil is investigated to understand the mechanism of lift enhancement, drag reduction, and stall margin increase. Digital Particle Image Velocimetry, flow visualization and aerodynamic forces measurements are used to reveal the insight of the CFJ airfoil mixing process. At low AoA and low momentum coefficient, the mixing between the wall jet and mainflow ...

This paper briefly reviews bluff body aerodynamics and focuses mainly on the use of short and thin splitter plates to interfere with the vortex wakes and suppress vortex-induced forces (VIF). The present investigation primarily examines the suppression of unsteady, two-dimensional wake instabilities over a low Reynolds number range of less than 250. A circular cylinder is used as the bluff body...

Distributed electric propulsion technology has great potential and advantages in the development of drones. In this paper, to study slipstream effect distributed propellers, actuator disk method was used verify a single propeller, calculated thrust good agreement with test results. Then, based on method, influence different installation positions studied, propeller layout optimized by genetic a...

The blades of a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) rotor see an inconsistent angle of attack through its rotation. Consequently, VAWT blades generally use symmetrical aerofoils with a lower lift-to-drag ratio than cambered aerofoils tailored to maximise horizontal axis wind turbine rotor performance. This paper considers the feasibility of circulation controlled (CC) VAWT blades, using a tangent...

Recently, experiments showed that forces on intruders dragged horizontally through dense, hydrostatic granular packings mainly depend on the local surface orientation and can be seen as the sum of the forces exerted on small surface elements. In order to understand such forces more deeply, we perform a two-dimensional soft-sphere molecular dynamics simulation, on a similar setup, of an intruder...