Biomimetics

Autor: Hope A. Gruszewski, Michael Collver, Gary K. Nave, Shane D. Ross, Nathaniel Hall, Katrina Somers, David G. Schmale, Craig Powers, Brock Davis
Přispěvatelé: Engineering Mechanics, School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Biomimetics
Biomimetics, Vol 6, Iss 23, p 23 (2021)
Volume 6
Issue 2
Popis: Maple trees (genus Acer) accomplish the task of distributing objects to a wide area by producing seeds, known as samaras, which are carried by the wind as they autorotate and slowly descend to the ground. With the goal of supporting engineering applications, such as gathering environmental data over a broad area, we developed 3D-printed artificial samaras. Here, we compare the behavior of both natural and artificial samaras in both still-air laboratory experiments and wind dispersal experiments in the field. We show that the artificial samaras are able to replicate (within one standard deviation) the behavior of natural samaras in a lab setting. We further use the notion of windage to compare dispersal behavior, and show that the natural samara has the highest mean windage, corresponding to the longest flights during both high wind and low wind experimental trials. This study demonstrated a bioinspired design for the dispersed deployment of sensors and provides a better understanding of wind-dispersal of both natural and artificial samaras. Published version
Databáze: OpenAIRE