ME Seminar - Vortices and Forces in Biological Flight

Guest Speaker: Prof. LIU Hao 

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chiba University
Director, Center for Aerial Intelligent Vehicles (CAIV)

Prof. LIU is professor of mechanical engineering at Chiba University, and director of Center for Aerial Intelligent Vehicles (CAIV). He is a fellow of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME). He is selected among Top Leading Scientists in the fields of engineering & technology (research.com) and Top 2% Scientist (Stanford University). Prior to joining Chiba University in 2003, he was a senior research scientist in RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research). He is the author and a co-author of more than 650 papers in journals and conferences, mainly dealing with computational mechanics, biomechanics in flying and swimming, fluid-structure interaction, biomimetics, insect-inspired micro air vehicles, and bio-inspired engineering as well as multi-scale, multi-physical modeling of the cardiovascular system, and AI-driven predictive medicine. He has received several awards including JACM Computational Mechanics Award, and his professional views have been quoted in several news media, including NHK, AFP, Thomson Reuter, and most major newspapers in Japan, including Yomiuri-Shimbun, Asashi-Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Nikkan etc. 

In this talk, I highlight the state of the art of vortex-dominated, unsteady aerodynamics from the viewpoint of diversity and uniformity associated with dominant vortices, particularly of the relevant physical aspects of the flight of insects and birds from tiny featherwing beetle up to large owl in the low Reynolds-number (Re) regime of 10⁰ to 10⁵. An overview is given of the main technical aspects comprising the leading-edge vortices, vortices during wing rotation, wing-body interaction, flexible wing- and wing hinge-induced wing-flow interaction, wing-wake interactions, and aeroacoustics from a combined theoretical, computational, and experimental perspective. Finally, I will give a summary of the main results and the future issues in the field.