Bird Wing Biomimetics

What is it about?

Looking at birds one can often see distinct gaps between their wing tip feathers. Aircraft wings on the other side do not copy much of this feature. In this project we adopt an engineering aerodynamics calculation (lifting line model) to study the performance of various different wing configurations with such tip feathers. Based on this we discuss the aerodynamic effects of the tip feathers and find a general increase in wing efficiency when splitting a wing tip into feather-like winglets.

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Why is it important?

Birds have been studied as prototypes for aircraft design since the beginning of aviation. But only a few studies have been conducted on the benefits of wing tip feathers. The aerodynamics behind these tip feathers remain to be understood. The implemented engineering model provided us with a tool to quickly modify the wing/ feather geometry and almost instantly obtain an aerodynamics analysis. Thus we could analyze over 100 different wing configurations and study the underlying aerodynamics.