We directly measure the rapid spreading dynamics succeeding the impact of a droplet of fluid on a solid, dry surface. Upon impact, the air separating the liquid from the solid surface fails to drain and wetting is delayed as the liquid rapidly spreads outwards over a nanometer thin film of air. We show that the approach of the spreading liquid front toward the surface is unstable and the spread...

Birds adjust their flight behaviour to the physical properties of the air. Lift and drag, the two major properties in aerodynamics, are highly dependent on air density. With decreasing air density drag is reduced and lift per wingbeat decreases. According to flight mechanical theory, wingbeat frequency and air speed should increase with decreasing air density, i.e. increasing flight altitude. A...

CL, CD, CD0 = lift coefficient, drag coefficient, and drag coefficient with zero lift DSi = dynamic soaring number sample E, Emin = aircraft total energy and minimum sustainable total energy, J g = gravity acceleration, m∕s h, hmin = altitude and safety altitude, m K = drag-polar-induced drag gain k1, k2, k3 = necessary and sufficient conditions inequality parameters L, D = lift and drag forces...

All animals flap their wings in powered flight to provide both lift and thrust, yet few human-engineered designs do so. When combined with flexible wing surfaces, the resulting unsteady fluid flows and interactions in flapping flight can be complex to describe, understand, and model. Here, a simple modified actuator disk is used in a quasi-steady description of the net aerodynamic lift forces o...

This study presents an experimental investigation of a piston engine driven by compressed air. The compressed air engine was a modified 100 cm 3 internal combustion engine obtained from a motorcycle manufacturer. The experiments in this study used a test bench to examine the power performance and pressure/temperature variations of the compressed air engine at pressures ranging from 5 to 9 bar (...

To the Editor: Bob Colwell’s discussion of lift (“Leave Bernoulli Out of This,” At Random, May 2003, pp. 10-12) is better informed than many elementary texts on the subject, but it leaves out a more interesting question about how wings fly. Colwell points out the errors in the usual explanation—the one that depends on a wing’s greater curvature on top. His excellent counterexamples are that fla...

We show by computational solution of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with friction force boundary conditions, that the classical inviscid circulation theory by Kutta-Zhukovsky for lift of a wing and laminar viscous boundary layer theory by Prandtl for drag, which have dominated 20th century flight mechanics, do not correctly describe the real turbulent airflow around a wing. We show ...

We present a new mathematical theory explaning the mircale of flight which is fundamentally different from the existing theory by Kutta-ZhukovskyPrandtl formed 100 year ago. The new theory is based a new resolution of d’Alembert’s paradox showing that slightly viscous bluff body flow can be viewed as zero-drag/lift potential flow modified by a specific separation instability into turbulent flow...

An 80-year-old man with a history of en bloc resection of squamous cell carcinoma of the hard palate (T4aN0M0) was performed a lateral-window sinus lift of the edentulous area of the left maxillary molar region to facilitate future placement of dental implants.Two hours after the surgery, the patient complained of sudden malar swelling. Marked swelling was present from the left infraorbital reg...