Title: Study of the flight of the Acer negundo samara

Authors: F. Porritiello; V. Nadal Mora; J. Piechocki

Addresses: UIDET GTA-GIAI, Departamento de Ingeniería Aeroespacial, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina ' UIDET GTA-GIAI, Departamento de Ingeniería Aeroespacial, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina ' UIDET GTA-GIAI, Departamento de Ingeniería Aeroespacial, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract: Samaras have been the object of intensive study in recent years. This inspiring aerodynamic rotary decelerator attracts research attention because of its simplicity: it is composed of a thin wing and a concentrated load. Specimens from Acer negundo seeds were taken in two batches to perform experimental measurements and for model configuration, mass properties and aerodynamic characteristics. The samara flight was then characterised by nutation angle, falling and rotation velocities. Then simulations were performed, and their results were compared with those of the experiments. The contrast exercise found that the simulation tool helps predict the behaviour of the flight of samaras. The contributions of this work are to characterise the flight of a particular maple samara belonging to Acer negundo specie, utilising experimental research and simulations of the samara flight using a simple routine developed for atmospheric decelerators, this last in order to determine the suitability of this tool for this particular application.

Keywords: rotary wing decelerator; samara seed; rotary wing aerodynamics; low Reynolds number aerodynamics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAD.2022.130036

International Journal of Aerodynamics, 2022 Vol.7 No.3, pp.224 - 235

Accepted: 17 Oct 2022
Published online: 04 Apr 2023 *

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