Twomodels are proposed for rotating detonation engine performance. The first model is motivated bymodels of pulse detonation engine performance which are based on the pressure-time history within the detonation tube. The present work extends those ideas to treat rotating detonation engines with a control volume analysis that considers the forces within the combustion chamber. The key scaling pa...

Attempts to measure the propulsive forces produced by swimming dolphins have been limited. Previous uses of computational hydrodynamic models and gliding experiments have provided estimates of thrust production by dolphins, but these were indirect tests that relied on various assumptions. The thrust produced by two actively swimming bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) was directly measured...

Historically, studies concerning bat flight have focused primarily on the wings. By analyzing high-speed video taken on 48 individuals of five species of vespertilionid bats, we show that the capacity to flap the tail-membrane (uropatagium) in order to generate thrust and lift during takeoffs and minimal-speed flight (<1 m (s-1)) was largely underestimated. Indeed, bats flapped the tail-membran...

For nearly a century, researchers have tried to understand the swimming of aquatic animals in terms of a balance between the forward thrust from swimming movements and drag on the body. Prior approaches have failed to provide a separation of these two forces for undulatory swimmers such as lamprey and eels, where most parts of the body are simultaneously generating drag and thrust. We nonethele...

Linear flux switching motors with simple passive segmented secondary, referred as Segmented Secondary Linear Flux Switching Motors (SSLFSMs), have low cost secondary and therefore are applicable to transportation systems like Maglev. However, it is shown that the SSLFSMs suffer from high thrust ripples. In this paper, minimizing SSLFSM thrust ripples besides maximizing its developed thrust are ...

This is an experimental comparison Of two axi-symmetric, isentropic plug nozzles. In one of these (Model No. 1) the afterbody is cylindricaland a secondary flow is bled into the annular base. The other (Model No. 2) has a parabolic afterbody with no base or bleed. In both cases the expansion is all-external and the design pressure ratio is 14. These models were tested over a range of primary an...

Initiating flight is challenging, and considerable effort has focused on understanding the energetics and aerodynamics of take-off for both machines and animals. For animal flight, the available evidence suggests that birds maximize their initial flight velocity using leg thrust rather than wing flapping. The smallest birds, hummingbirds (Order Apodiformes), are unique in their ability to perfo...