Even in an era of supercomputers, there is a place for quick and dirty methods of flow visualization. Here we see a model of a swept wing like those seen on Keep reading
Tag: stall
Why Do Backwards Wings Exist?
Over the years, there have been many odd airplane designs, but one you probably haven’t seen much is the forward-swept wing. While most early aircraft featured straight wings, rear-swept wings are Keep reading
Delta Wing Flow Viz
Designing new aerodynamic vehicles typically requires a combination of multiple experimental and numerical techniques. The photo above shows a model for an unmanned flying wing-type vehicle. Here it’s tested in Keep reading
Living Fluid Dynamics
This short film for the 2016 Gallery of Fluid Motion features Montana State University students experiencing fluid dynamics in the classroom and in their daily lives. As in her previous Keep reading
Plasma Flow Control
Engineers frequently face the challenge of maintaining control of air flow around an object across a wide range of conditions. After all, wind turbines and airplanes don’t always get to Keep reading
Perching Physics
Compared to birds, manmade aircraft tend to be quite limited and inelegant. Fixed-wing aircraft, for example, require long, flat areas for take-off and landing, whereas birds of all sizes are Keep reading
Laser-Induced Fluorescence
One of the challenges of experimental fluid dynamics is capturing information about a flow that varies in three spatial dimensions and time. Experimentalists have developed many techniques over the years–some Keep reading
Separating Flow
Flow separation occurs when a fluid is unable to flow smoothly around an object. In the case of the photo above, fog is being used to visualize flow around an Keep reading
Dynamic Stall
In nature, birds and other flying animals often use unsteady flow effects to enhance the lift their wings generate. When a wing sits at a high angle of attack, it Keep reading
Stalling
[original media no longer available] At high angles of attack, the flow around the leading edge of an airfoil can separate from the airfoil, leading to a drastic loss of Keep reading