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Multidisciplinary research method for designing and selection of bio-inspired profiles in the conceptual designing stage

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Abstract

A multidisciplinary research method was employed with the intention to create a series of bio-inspired flattened airfoils, observe their aerodynamic characteristics, and analyse their applicability to small devices or to designs of high-speed trains, within the shortest period in the conceptual stage. A research specimen of a kingfisher, selected for biomimicry, was examined with the following methods: visual inspection, analysis of photographs, manufacturing quality control measurement with a 3D laser scanner, and microscopy. A basic multi-arc-line profile, re-engineered from the overlapped specimen shape data and based on the observations, was used for designing a series of seven derived airfoils. The aerodynamic characteristics of the bio-inspired airfoils were obtained with the panel methods at low and moderate subsonic speeds, while the small transonic difference method was used in the high-subsonic speed range. Basic and ellipse-like airfoils produce higher total drag at low and moderate velocities and higher forebody drag in the high-subsonic range when compared to derived and parabola-like airfoils. The obtained critical Mach numbers are in the range from 0.76 to 0.78, where three bionic airfoils show values equal to or smaller than the values of ellipse- and parabola-like airfoils. The profile with the shortest bio-inspired relative chord has a higher critical Mach number value than the parabola-like profile. The sonic lines above these profiles appear at close positions. The applied set of examination methods of the bio-inspired design is not time consuming and produces sufficiently good results in the conceptual stage. Therefore, a further development of unique and adjusted numerical methods and codes at pre-computational fluid dynamics run is encouraged, together with shape parameterization.

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Availability of data and materials

All the data are given in the manuscript.

Code availability

Except for TSFOIL2, the used codes are freely available on the internet and referenced. TSFOIL2 is available online for educational purposes. We kindly get the permission for use of TSFOIL2 for implementation in this work from the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Tech, USA, on which we are thankful.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, the Republic of Serbia, for partial financial support through the Projects TR-35045 and TR 34028 (2011.–2020.). The authors are grateful to Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Tech, USA, Mr. Vladimir Ivanović, General Manager of the HEXAGON Serbia for laser scanning, Ph.D. Mirko Kozić, Research fellow at Military Technical Institute, Belgrade, for kind mentoring and knowledge transfer in fluid dynamics, Ph.D. Boško Rašuo at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, for knowledge transfer in bionic. We thank Professor Ph.D. Eric Paterson, Head of the Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, for permitting the use of TSFOIL2, and M.Sc Slaven Linić, Jasmin d.o.o., with Maja Linić, graphic design student, for technical support. Also, we thank all the authors of the open-source software, listed in References, used in this research.

Funding

Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia—partial financial supporting through the Projects TR-35045, realized by the University of Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and TR 34028, realized by University of Belgrade, Institute of Chemistry, Technology, and Metallurgy (2011.–2020.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Innovation Center of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade, 16 Kraljice Marije Street, 11120, Belgrade, Serbia

    Suzana Linić

  2. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade, 16 Kraljice Marije Street, 11120, Belgrade, Serbia

    Vojkan Lučanin

  3. Military Technical Institute, 1 Ratka Resanovića Street, 11030, Belgrade, Serbia

    Srdjan Živković

  4. Museum of Natural History, 51 Njegoševa Street, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Marko Raković

  5. Central Institute for Conservation, 26 Terazije Street, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Slavica Ristić & Suzana Polić

  6. Institute of Chemistry, Technology, and Metallurgy, Department of Electrochemistry, University of Belgrade, 12 Njegoševa Street, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Bojana Radojković

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  1. Suzana Linić
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Contributions

Conceptualization and design were contributed by Suzana Linić, Vojkan Lučanin; Methodology was contributed by Vojkan Lučanin, Srdjan Živković, Marko Raković, Slavica Ristić, and Suzana Polić; Formal analysis and investigation were contributed by Suzana Linić, Srdjan Živković, Marko Raković, Slavica Ristić, Bojana Radojković; Writing—original draft preparation, was contributed by Suzana Linić; Writing—review and editing, was contributed by Slavica Ristić, Srdjan Živković, Marko Raković, and Suzana Linić; Supervision was contributed by Vojkan Lučanin. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Suzana Linić.

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Human and animal rights

In this research, no animals have been harmed, experienced the pain or being hurt. The preserved specimen of the kingfisher from the Serbian Natural History Museum’s zoological collection was used in the conduct of research.

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Technical Editor: André Cavalieri.

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Linić, S., Lučanin, V., Živković, S. et al. Multidisciplinary research method for designing and selection of bio-inspired profiles in the conceptual designing stage. J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 43, 57 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-020-02789-2

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