On the maintenance of an attached leading-edge vortex via model bird alula

Abstract

Researchers have hypothesized that the post-stall lift benefit of bird's alular feathers, or alula, stems from the maintenance of an attached leading-edge vortex (LEV) over their thin-profiled, outer hand-wing. Here, we investigate the connection between the alula and LEV attachment via flow measurements in a wind tunnel. We show that a model alula, whose wetted area is 1% that of the wing, stabilizes a recirculatory aft-tilted LEV on a steadily-translating unswept wing inclined at post-stall incidences. The attached vortex is the result of the alula's ability to smoothly merge otherwise separate leading- and side-edge vortical flows. We identify two key processes that facilitate this merging: i) the steering of spanwise vorticity generated at the wing's leading edge back to the wing plane and ii) an aft-located wall-jet of high-magnitude root-to-tip spanwise flow (>80% that of the freestream velocity). The latter feature induces LEV roll-up while the former feature tilts LEV vorticity aft and evacuates this flow toward the wing tip via an outboard vorticity flux. We identify the alula's streamwise position (relative to the leading-edge of the thin wing) as important for vortex steering and the alula's cant angle as important for high-magnitude spanwise flow generation. These findings advance our understanding of the likely ways bird's leverage LEVs to augment slow flight.