How has time optimized this biological wind turbine?

1. Flow Simulation of a Maple Seed and Engineering Designs Jacob Holden, Thomas Caley, Dr. Mark G. Turner College of Engineering and Applied Science, Aerospace Engineering How has time optimized this biological wind turbine? Introduction The motivation for this project is to simulate aerodynamics in nature and explore the application of the simulated designs in many places, especially in renewable power generation. Design Applications Power Generation Decelerator Potential • Computational Fluid Dynamics • Assumptions & Model • Seed in Cylindrical Duct with frictionless walls (simulating steady-state seed falling vertically) • Incompressible flow • Three-Dimensional Steady • 3D Geometry • Volumetric Mesh • Finite Volume Solver • The assumptions above are given as well as the following conditions determined from high speed video data: • V= 1.5 m/s (vertical velocity of falling seed) • ω= 1600 r.p.m. (rotation of falling seed) • Pitch and coning angles= 0° The driving motivation is power generation. The theory is that a maple seed has been genetically optimized to extract the most power from the air, which is also the goal of a wind turbine. • CAD files of 4 collected seed samples came from CT Scans by Exact Metrology Simulation Results 1 2 3 4 Currently supplies are airdropped into remote locations with expensive and unreliable parachutes. A decelerator with maple seed inspiration would be effective and simple. • The Volume is divided into ~2 million polyhedral cells for the solver to compute • Relative velocity streamtubes (image 1,2, & 3) show the flow as the rotating seed sees it • Specifically the vortices at the tip are noticed in 1 & 2 • Acknowledgements • Dr. Mark Turner for endless guidance and advice • Dr. UrmilaGhia and TemesgenAure for their coordination of the AY-REU Program • NSF for funding this project, NSF Type 1 STEP Grant, Grant ID No.: DUE-0756921