title: Coriolis effects enhance lift on revolving wings.
abstract: At high angles of attack, an aircraft wing stalls. This dreaded event is characterized by the development of a leading edge vortex on the upper surface of the wing, followed by its shedding which causes a drastic drop in the aerodynamic lift. At similar angles of attack, the leading edge vortex on an insect wing or an autorotating seed membrane remains robustly attached, ensuring high sustained lift. What are the mechanisms responsible for both leading edge vortex attachment and high lift generation on revolving wings? We review the three main hypotheses that attempt to explain this specificity and, using direct numerical simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations, we show that the latter originates in Coriolis effects.
authors: Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, University of Toulouse, 10 Avenue Edouard-Belin, Toulouse 31055, France.
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Jardin
authors: Institut Pprime, University of Poitiers, 11 Boulevard Marie et Pierre Curie, Futuroscope Chasseneuil 86962, France.
authors: L
authors: L
authors: David
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003312:Coriolis Force; D008954:Models, Biological; D012399:Rotation; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000502:physiology*