Hassanalian M, Abdelmoula H, Ben Ayed S, Abdelkefi A
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, 88003, USA.
J Therm Biol. 2017 May;66:27-32. doi: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2017.03.013. Epub 2017 Mar 27.
The thermal impact of the birds' color on their flight performance are investigated. In most of the large migrating birds, the top of their wings is black. Considering this natural phenomenon in the migrating birds, such as albatross, a thermal analysis of the boundary layer of their wings is performed during the year depending on the solar insulation. It is shown that the temperature difference between the bright and dark colored top wing surface is around 10°C. The dark color on the top of the wing increases the temperature of the boundary layer over the wing which consequently reduces the skin drag force over the wing. This reduction in the drag force can be considered as one of the effective factors for long endurance of these migrating birds. This research should lead to improved designs of the drones by applying the inspired colors which can help drones increase their endurance.
研究了鸟类颜色对其飞行性能的热影响。在大多数大型候鸟中，它们翅膀的顶部是黑色的。考虑到候鸟（如信天翁）的这种自然现象，根据太阳辐射，对其翅膀边界层进行了全年的热分析。结果表明，翅膀顶部亮色和暗色表面之间的温差约为10°C。翅膀顶部的深色增加了翅膀上方边界层的温度，从而降低了翅膀上的表面摩擦力。这种摩擦力的降低可被视为这些候鸟能够长时间飞行的有效因素之一。这项研究应通过应用受启发的颜色来改进无人机的设计，这有助于无人机提高其续航能力。
