Aerodynamics of the Cupped Wings during Peregrine Falcon’s Diving Flight

During a dive peregrine falcons can reach velocities of more than 320 km/h and makes themselves the fastest animals in the world. The aerodynamic mechanisms involved are not fully understood yet and the search for a conclusive answer to this fact motivates the three-dimensional (3-D) flow study. Especially the cupped wing configuration which is a unique feature of the wing shape in falcon peregrine dive is our focus herein. In particular, the flow in the gap between the main body and the cupped wing is studied to understand how this flow interacts with the body and to what extend it affects the integral forces of lift and drag. Characteristic shapes of the wings while diving are studied with regard to their aerodynamics using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results of the numerical simulations via ICEM CFD and OpenFOAM show predominant flow structures around the body surface and in the wake of the falcon model such as a pair of body vortices and tip vortices. The drag for the cupped wing profile is reduced in relation to the configuration of opened wings (without cupped-like profile) while lift is increased. The purpose of this study is primarily the basic research of the aerodynamic mechanisms during the falcon’s diving flight. The results could be important for maintaining good maneuverability at high speeds in the aviation sector.

Feather Vibration as a Stimulus for Sensing Incipient Separation in Falcon Diving Flight

Based on our preceding studies on the aerodynamics of a falcoperegrinus in diving flight along a vertical dam it is known that even when the body shape of the bird is rather streamlined in V-shape some feathers tips may elevate in certain regions of the body. These regions were identified in wind tunnel tests for typical diving flight conditions as regions of locally separated flow. A life-size model in V-shape of a falcoperegrinus with artificial feathers fixed along the body was studied in a wind tunnel to focus on the fluid-structure interaction of feathers located in this sector. The distal ends of the feathers show flow-induced vibrations at typical flight conditions which grow linear in amplitude with increasing angle of incidence until incipient separation. In light of the proven existence of vibration-sensitive mechanoreceptors in the follicles of secondary feathers in birds it is hypothesized that this linear amplitude response offers the bird to sense the angle of incidence during the diving flight using the vibration magnitude as sensory stimulus. Thus the bird in streamlined shape has still a good measure to control its attitude to be in the narrow window of safe angle of incidence. This might have implications also for other birds or technical applications of airfoil sensors regarding incipient separation detection.