Aerodynamics of flying seeds

• Main Author: Foo, Mavelus Cher Wei
• Other Authors: New Tze How, Daniel
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Engineering; Autorotating seeds; Samaras
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/176410
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This report presents a preliminary experimental analysis of different autorotating seeds with varying wing configurations to visualize and compare their steady-state behaviours and performances. These autorotating seeds are naturally dispersed by wind and therefore have wing-like structures to increase their landing distances away from their parent trees. These wing-like structures cause the seeds to gyrate about a centre axis of rotation; thereby slowing down their rate of descent to achieve further dispersal distances. In this study, five different species of seeds were experimented on: namely the Swietenia macrophylla seed, Tabebuia rosea seed, Hopea odorata seed, Shorea roxburghii seed, and Petrea volubilis seed. A closed containment setup with an actuating system along with high-speed cameras were used to facilitate the data collection. The results indicated that the Petrea volubilis seed had the lowest wing loading, correlating with the lowest steady-state descent velocity and revolutions per minute (RPM). Conversely, the Shorea roxburghii seed exhibited the highest wing loading and highest steady-state descent velocity and RPM. This report also provides various explanations for the observed trends and proposes recommendations for future studies on this topic.