Flow Features of the Near Wake of the Australian Boobook Owl (Ninox boobook) During Flapping Flight Suggest an Aerodynamic Mechanism of Sound Suppression for Stealthy Flight.

ABSTRACT: The mechanisms associated with the ability of owls to fly silently have been the subject of scientific interest for many decades and may be relevant to bio-inspired design to reduce noise of flapping and non-flapping flying devices. Here, we characterize the near wake dynamics and the associated flow structures produced during flight of the Australian boobook owl (Ninox boobook). Three individual owls were flown at 8 ms^-1 in a climatic avian wind tunnel. The velocity field in the wake was sampled at 500 Hz using long-duration high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) while the wing kinematics were imaged simultaneously using high speed video. The time series of velocity maps that were acquired over several consecutive wingbeat cycles enabled us to characterize the wake

SUBMITTER: Lawley J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7671144 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature