bio-inspired membrane turbines
Bat-wing-inspired flexible membranes that let oscillating-foil turbines extract more power from rivers and tides.
Compliant membrane wings, inspired by the wings of bats and other flying mammals, generate more lift than rigid airfoils and stall later. When oscillated in a river or tidal current, a membrane wing can extract more power than a rigid foil.
Building on my undergraduate research at Brown, we mapped the performance of compliant-membrane oscillating-foil turbines across the full range of kinematic parameters and compared the lift and power of compliant and inextensible membranes. The paper was selected as an Editor’s Suggestion in Physical Review Fluids.
Paper: I. M. L. Upfal, Y. Zhu, E. Handy-Cardenas, and K. Breuer, Physical Review Fluids 10, 034702 (2025). DOI