Bio-Mimic of eagle flight at low speeds and low reynolds numbers to enhance gliding

Project Abstract / Summary : "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" as said by Aristotle. On the quest to understand this marvelous nature, we came up with this project to develop a glider to mimic the glide of an Eagle that can alter the planform of its wings in order to optimize the aerodynamics for a given flight stage at low speeds & low reynolds numbers. Based on our research & conclusions from software simulations, we applied aero flexible aerodynamic feature to the wing inspired from the flight of an eagle. Flexible airfoil model shows a turbulence robust behavior whereas the conventional wing shows uncontrollable behavior in turbulent stream. We used thin plastic strips in the shape of eagle feathers. At the beginning, feather elements were showing turbulent motion but later they order seamless due to evolving of continuous vortices behind the edge which delays flow separation optimizing gliding capacity.

Why did you choose to work on this project topic : The current trend in aerospace industry to achieve efficient aircraft design made us to get inspirations from nature. At preliminary stage, we thought of modelling the eagle flight and apply its principle to the existing aircraft design. A deeper insight in to the topic made us aware of the complexities involved and constraints we had in terms of resources and time which made us to focus on a minimized theme of building a glider with maximum gliding capabilities. We can apply some of these principles to present day aircrafts to improve their efficiency. There are endless opportunities in this topic which proves its scope beyond words.

Project Category : Mechanical / Automobile / Aeronautical
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Institute/College Name: International Institute of Aerospace Engineering & Management - Jain University
City: Ramnagar
State: Karnataka
Participating Team From: Third Year