Currently viewing the tag: "Aerodynamics"

The Atmosphere

On January 18, 2014 · In Aerodynamics, General Aerospace

Understanding the details of the atmosphere is critical for manned flight since it provides the medium through which the aircraft moves. The lift provided by the wings and drag experienced by the aircraft vary greatly with different altitudes. In fact Sir Frank Whittle was largely motivated to design a jet engine due to his insight […]

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Reducing Skin-Friction Drag by Laminar Flow

On April 28, 2012 · In Aerodynamics, History

In a previous post I introduced the concept of skin-friction and pressure drag, and discussed the contradicting aerodynamic conditions to minimise either of the two types of drag. Overall the minimum resistance of slender shapes (such as aerofoils) to a fluid is attained with an attached laminar […]

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High-Lift Devices

On April 21, 2012 · In Aerodynamics, Bio-mimicry

In a previous post I introduced the concept of boundary layer separation and how aquatic animals actively or passively morph their skins to delay this phenomenon. As a brief recap, when flow over a surface encounters an adverse pressure gradient (i.e. the fluid pressure increases in […]

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Bio-mimetic Drag Reduction – Part 3: Morphing

On April 5, 2012 · In Aerodynamics, Bio-mimicry

In the previous two posts of this blog series I introduced the different sensing mechanism that aquatic animals possess to create spatial images of the largely turbulent flow fields around them. Flow sensing has been shown to […]

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Bio-mimetic Drag Reduction – Part 2: Aero- and Hydrodynamics

On March 31, 2012 · In Aerodynamics, Bio-mimicry

Part 1 of this blog series outlined the different sensing mechanisms that aquatic animals possess to create spatial images of the flow fields around them. In summary fish were found to possess a network of mechanosensors distributed over their bodies called the lateral line. The lateral line […]

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