![]() Windage is known to influence the fate of seeds of seagrasses, which are primarily water-dispersed, but to our knowledge has not been considered for primarily wind-dispersed seeds.Īrtificial samara seeds, not of maples, but of a tropical tree Tachigalia versicolor, have been considered previously. To quantify the dispersal of the samaras by wind, we additionally introduce the concept of windage, representing the effective horizontal force of the wind on, and hence the horizontal motion of, falling objects. Rather than fully exploring the parameter space, the purpose of the present study is to develop and systematically compare 3D-printed artificial samaras with their natural counterparts in a variety of settings. We then conducted a series of laboratory (no wind) and field (with wind) experiments to study the dispersal of artificial and natural samaras. These artificial samaras were designed to match the dimensions, shape, and weight distribution of natural maple samaras. To test this hypothesis, we developed replicas of samaras via additive manufacturing (i.e., 3D printing). We hypothesized that the artificial samaras, with similar morphology to their natural counterparts, would have similar dispersal characteristics (e.g., descent speed, rotation speed, and dispersal distance). In this study, we sought to reproduce the flight behavior seen in natural samaras by creating artificial samaras. This ultimately reduces resource competition and increases fitness. Samaras with a longer descent time have a greater likelihood of being dispersed over greater distances by the wind. ![]() After abscission, the samara, after falling from rest, goes through a transition phase (about 1 m descent), which leads to autorotation and a steady descent, slower than what would be predicted from the terminal velocity based on mass and drag considerations alone.ĭetailed fluid experiments have revealed that the slow descent of the maple samara is due to a lift force generated by the formation of a stable leading-edge vortex, which has been reproduced in simulation via computational fluid dynamics. A samara consists of a seed (nut or pericarp) and a single fibrous wing. The fruit of maple trees (genus Acer) produce wind-dispersed seeds known as samaras. Wind dispersal is a common distribution strategy in the biological world, employed by organisms across different scales, from microscopic scales (e.g., fungi and pollen) to macroscopic scales (e.g., insects and plant seeds ). For instance, in recent years, a concept known as GlobalSense has been in development, which would involve massively deployable, low-cost airborne sensors inspired by two-winged seeds for atmospheric characterization. While much research focuses on sensor development and distributed sensor networks, there remains a need for efficient methods to distribute the sensors themselves. This study demonstrated a bioinspired design for the dispersed deployment of sensors and provides a better understanding of wind-dispersal of both natural and artificial samaras.ĭistributed networks of inexpensive sensors can provide an effective method for gathering environmental data, with applications to precision meteorology and atmospheric physics, wildfire management, air quality, water quality, agricultural management, and even exploration of other planetary surfaces. We further use the notion of windage to compare dispersal behavior, and show that the natural samara has the highest mean windage, corresponding to the longest flights during both high wind and low wind experimental trials. We show that the artificial samaras are able to replicate (within one standard deviation) the behavior of natural samaras in a lab setting. Here, we compare the behavior of both natural and artificial samaras in both still-air laboratory experiments and wind dispersal experiments in the field. ![]() With the goal of supporting engineering applications, such as gathering environmental data over a broad area, we developed 3D-printed artificial samaras. Maple trees (genus Acer) accomplish the task of distributing objects to a wide area by producing seeds, known as samaras, which are carried by the wind as they autorotate and slowly descend to the ground.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |