Skip to main content

Penguins could hold secret to stopping planes crashing

Flightless penguins could hold secret to stopping planes crashing in icy conditions




What is left of the British empire
Research: Science behind penguins' feathers could be applied to planes

They may be famous for being flightless, but the reason why penguins do not freeze could hold a clue that prevents aeroplanes from crashing, according to a study by rocket scientists.
Researchers have discovered why the birds manage to keep their feathers ice free even though they are constantly coming out of the sea and hitting temperatures which can fall to a staggering minus 40 degrees celsius.
And if they can apply it to the wings of aircraft, they may be able to stop ice forming which, in some cases, has been known to lead to the planes crashing.
All penguins have water repelling oil in their feathers. But aerospace engineers discovered penguins in the coldest regions on earth had even more efficient feathers than those in warmer climes.

PAA view from the control tower at Heathrow Airport
Important: Numerous incidents have occurred in the past due to ice on wings

Antarctic based species live in temperatures which fall to minus 40C where the winds blow up to 40 meters a second, for instance.
But their feathers were found to be ‘superhydrophobic’ thanks to a complicated nanostructure combined with oil which stops water droplets from soaking into the feathers themselves.
The feathers have tiny pores that trap air while the oil is supplied by a gland near the base of the tail to circulate throughout the feathers.
This creates a surface where the water droplets cannot spread to they remain as tiny beads which roll off the surface, said researchers from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
Lead researcher, Professor Pirouz Kavehpour carried out the study after watching a documentary on penguins and wondering why they no ice ever formed on them.
The team collected feathers from different species of the birds from San Diego SeaWorld and noticed the difference in those in extreme cold climates to those in warmer climes.
Prof Kavehpour said: “Heat flow could be compared to traffic. If you have a freeway that turns into a tiny, two-lane road, the traffic will back up
“Similarly, heat does not flow well from the large cross-section of the middle of the drop to the small cross-section where the drop makes contact with the feather.”


King penguin in Antarctica
Ironic: Researchers have seen the funny side in the discovery including one of the few flightless birds

But the same principle could work on aircraft wings too. Ice on wings, flaps and rudders can alter the aerodynamic properties of a plane and has been cited as a factor in crashes.
Some use chemical de-icers in the winter but this is an expensive process and not foolproof. The researchers hope to be able to adapt the superhydrophobic surface of a penguin to that of an aircraft.
Their paper will be presented to a physics conference in the US this week.
But their report added: “Superhydrophobic surfaces inspired by penguins might be cheaper, longer-lasting and more environmentally friendly.
“It’s a little ironic that a bird that doesn’t fly could one day help airplanes fly more safely.”
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TOP 10 VENOMOUS SNAKES IN THE WORLD

            It’s important to point out here that there’s a difference between   venomous snakes   and   poisonous snakes . Venomous here implies that something is capable of injecting someone or something with Venom, while poisonous implies that it is capable of harming you by merely touching or eating it.    Now let see the rating from 10th to 1st place -  10. Rattle Snake         The Rattle Snake is a sub-family of the pit vipers, it has a very unique tail that makes it easy to be identified. At the end of it’s tail is located the rattle which makes so much noise when shaken, that’s where the name “rattle snake” comes from. Large number of it can be found in America particularly at the south, western part of United States and Mexico. One Striking feature of rattle snake that they possessed from the pit vipers families is that they have two organs that...
Post a Comment
Read more
Alexander Graham Bell, the teacher of the deaf and his deaf wife Alexander Graham Bell. Alexander Graham Bell  (3 March 1847 – 2 August 1922) was an eminent scientist, inventor and innovator who is widely credited with inventing the first practical telephone. Bell was deeply affected by his mother's gradual deafness, (she began to lose her hearing when he was 12) and learned a manual finger language so he could sit at her side and tap out silently the conversations swirling around the family parlour. He also developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated tones directly into his mother's forehead wherein she would hear him with reasonable clarity. Bell's preoccupation with his mother's deafness led him to study Acoustics (study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound). Alexander Graham Bell, his wife Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, and their daughters Elsie (left) an...
Post a Comment
Read more

ORA-30013: undo tablespace 'UNDOTBS1' is currently in use

ORA-30013 is the error reported when the specified Undo tablespace is in use. In other words, this implies there are some background processes still using the undo tablespace.   This error can be reported in both space management or transaction management.   Error ORA-30013 reported while dropping the Undo tablespace.   In this case, the Undo tablespace is used by other active transactions, leading to the error. In such cases, we have to wait until the transactions are committed or rolled back before dropping the Undo tablespace. This situation is similar to that of the ORA-1548 case. Error ORA-30013 reported while bringing up the database.   This happens for RAC databases while the undo tablespace mentioned for an instance is already in use. The solution will be to set separate Undo tablespace for all instances.   Since undo_tablespace is an instance local parameter, we have to ensure that the "Alter system set undo_tablespace" is being invo...
Post a Comment
Read more