Numerical Aerodynamic Study of a Primary Feather Section from a Multi-slotted Wing

Bird flight has evolved to be highly efficient over a time span of a million years. Much of the evolution in flight of various birds is specialized to increase the flight performance of the bird in the adopted habitat. The bird flight in a macroscopic point of view has been a topic of research for a long time now. A few researchers in the past have looked into the microscopic structure and have recommended further studies in the aerodynamic significance of the microstructure. The coupling of the microscopic structure on the overall aerodynamics of the bird wing is not significantly studied or known. The current project extends the understanding of dynamics of flow of air around the micro-structure present in a feather section of a Multi slotted wing. Here, the motivating researches done in the past and helpful facts are detailed to make a clear picture of the project in hand. In the course of the present project we use a structural model of a feather section from a Multi slotted wing tip of a Western jackdaw. The experimentation in this project is done by the use of computational fluid dynamics toolbox called openFoam. The experimentation is designed as a list of possible variations of microstructural morphology of the feather section. The trends in the preliminary results are used to further identify the course of later experiments to relate specific regimes of bird flight. The primary goal of the project was to study the influence of vane asymmetry, vane porosity and feather roughness on aerodynamic coefficients. Further detailed view of the fluid dynamics of such a feather section is presented and compared with the observations at the Animal flight lab, Lund University, Sweden. The primary outcome of this project is to show that the micro-structure indeed has an effect on the flow characteristics and the variation of the micro-structure would lead to variation in the aerodynamics of the feather. The final outcome would be synthesis of a hypothesis related to influence of micro-structure of the feather based on the subjected variations in the feather morphology.Aerospace Engineerin