Numerical Analysis of Load Reduction in the Gliding Process Achieved by the Bionic Swan’s Webbed-Foot Structures
Fukui Gao, Xiyan Liu, Xinlin Li, Zhaolin Fan, Houcun Zhou, Wenhua Wu
TL;DR
This study uses computational methods to analyze how swans' webbed feet reduce impact during water landing, offering insights for designing better water-entry systems in vehicles.
Contribution
The study introduces a CFD-based analysis of swan webbed-foot gliding entry, revealing phase-specific dynamics and optimal angles for stability.
Findings
The gliding water-entry process consists of two phases: stable skipping and surface gliding.
An optimal pitch angle of 20° maximizes glide-skip stability, while angles beyond 25° or below 15° cause instability.
Higher water-entry velocity increases impact loads and skipping frequency, while higher angles intensify load magnitude.
Abstract
Webbed-foot gliding water entry is a characteristic water-landing strategy employed by swans and other large waterfowls, demonstrating exceptional low-impact loading and remarkable motion stability. These distinctive biomechanical features offer significant potential for informing the design of cross-medium vehicles’ (CMVs’) water-entry systems. To analyze the hydrodynamic mechanisms and flow characteristics during swan webbed-foot gliding entry, the three-dimensional bionic webbed-foot water-entry process was investigated through a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method coupled with global motion mesh (GMM) technology, with a particular emphasis on elucidating the regulatory effects of entry parameters on dynamic performance. The results demonstrated that the gliding water-entry process can be divided into two distinct phases: stable skipping and surface gliding. During the stable…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAerospace Engineering and Energy Systems · Soft Robotics and Applications · Adhesion, Friction, and Surface Interactions