Numerical simulation of bird flapping flight

Birds are capable of truly impressive performance. For example, the bar-tailed godwits migrate each year from Alaska to New Zealand in a 11000km journey without stopping nor feeding. Part of a project aiming at understanding how birds fly in organised formations, this work focuses on the simulation of a single bird and its wake. For this, coupled bio-mechanical and aerodynamic models have been coupled to represent accurately the dynamics of the wing and the evolution of the wake. Controllers have been designed to ensure the stability of the flight and enable manoeuvers of the simulated bird. The simulation framework allows an accurate representation of the wake of the bird, which can be analysed. Finally, we simulate the flight of a bird in the wake of another, where he is able to exploit the flow to save energy