Measurement of Elastic Microfence Deflection for Aerodynamic Flow Sensing

Bio-inspired artificial hair sensors have the potential to detect aerodynamic flow features such as stagnation point, flow separation, and flow reattachment that could be beneficial for ight control and performance enhancement of aircraft. In this work, elastic microfence structures were tested on a at-plate setup. The microfences were fabricated from a two-part silicone molded against a template patterned by laser ablation. The response of the microfences to different freestream velocities and to flow reversal at the sensor were recorded via an optical microscope