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Biomimetics
Special Issues
Bio-Inspired Propulsion and Fluid Mechanics
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Bio-Inspired Propulsion and Fluid Mechanics

A special issue of Biomimetics (ISSN 2313-7673).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2025 | Viewed by 970

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alexander Alexeev

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Interests: fluid mechanics; biofluids; soft matter
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Xue Guang Meng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Aerospace Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Interests: insect flight; aerodynamics; bio-fluid dynamics; computational fluid mechanics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bionic air/underwater vehicles are often designed with natural flying/swimming organisms in mind, and biomimicry has emerged as an innovative approach to designing efficient machines for a number of engineering applications. In nature, fish perform rapid propulsion by oscillating their fins, and birds and insects achieve skillful flight maneuvers by flapping their wings. This is closely related to the interaction between their wings/fins and the surrounding fluids; therefore, the design of bionic vehicles requires a thorough understanding of these bio-inspired fluid flows. In the last two decades, although the flow physics underlying biopropulsion has been extensively studied, significant opportunities for further exploration remain, such as wing/fin deformation, biological self-propulsive motions, fluid–structure interactions, and wing/fin–wake interactions. Understanding these flow mechanisms is essential in designing enhanced high-performance bionic propulsion vehicles. These vehicles should be lightweight, high-performance, and adaptable to various environments. In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence has provided solutions in relation to the optimal design and control design of bionic vehicles. Therefore, it is vital that we expand these innovative areas of research and propose novel methods and useful design tools.

This Special Issue aims to explore the flow physics of bionic propulsion and the design and optimization of bionic vehicles. We believe that this initiative will provide important insights into bionic propulsion and inspire contributions from leading experts in the field.

Dr. Alexander Alexeev
Dr. Xue Guang Meng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomimetics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • flying/swimming
  • unsteady aerodynamics/hydrodynamics
  • numerical simulation/experimental techniques for bionic flows
  • self-propelled motion
  • vortex dynamics
  • bionic vehicle design and optimization

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 8094 KiB  
Article
Corrugation at the Trailing Edge Enhances the Aerodynamic Performance of a Three-Dimensional Wing During Gliding Flight
by Kaipeng Li, Na Xu, Licheng Zhong and Xiaolei Mou
Biomimetics 2025, 10(5), 329; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics10050329 - 17 May 2025
Viewed by 139
Abstract
Dragonflies exhibit remarkable flight capabilities, and their wings feature corrugated structures that are distinct from conventional airfoils. This study investigates the aerodynamic effects of three corrugation parameters on gliding performance at a Reynolds number of 1350 and angles of attack ranging from 0° [...] Read more.
Dragonflies exhibit remarkable flight capabilities, and their wings feature corrugated structures that are distinct from conventional airfoils. This study investigates the aerodynamic effects of three corrugation parameters on gliding performance at a Reynolds number of 1350 and angles of attack ranging from 0° to 20°: (1) chordwise corrugation position, (2) linear variation in corrugation amplitude toward the trailing edge, and (3) the number of trailing-edge corrugations. The results show that when corrugation structures are positioned closer to the trailing edge, they generate localized vortices in the mid-forward region of the upper surface, thereby enhancing aerodynamic performance. Further studies show that a linear increase in corrugation amplitude toward the trailing edge significantly delays the shedding of the leading-edge vortex (LEV), produces a more coherent LEV, and reduces the number of vortices within the corrugation grooves on the lower surface. Consequently, the lift coefficient is maximized with an enhancement of 28.99%. Additionally, reducing the number of trailing-edge corrugations makes the localized vortices on the upper surface approach the trailing edge and merge into larger, more continuous LEVs. The vortices on the lower surface grooves also decrease in number, and the lift coefficient is maximally increased by 20.09%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Propulsion and Fluid Mechanics)
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21 pages, 7482 KiB  
Article
Numerical Analysis of the Aerodynamic Interactions in Tandem Flying Snake Airfoils
by Yuchen Gong, Jiacheng Guo, Alexander He, Ye Sun and Haibo Dong
Biomimetics 2025, 10(3), 174; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics10030174 - 12 Mar 2025
Viewed by 524
Abstract
During gliding, flying snakes flatten their ribs to create an airfoil-like cross-section and adopt S-shape postures, allowing upstream body segments to generate wake structures that affect the aerodynamic performance of downstream segments. This study investigates these interactions using numerical simulations of two-dimensional snake [...] Read more.
During gliding, flying snakes flatten their ribs to create an airfoil-like cross-section and adopt S-shape postures, allowing upstream body segments to generate wake structures that affect the aerodynamic performance of downstream segments. This study investigates these interactions using numerical simulations of two-dimensional snake cross-sectional airfoils. By employing an immersed-boundary-method-based incompressible flow solver with tree topological local mesh refinement, various foil positions and movements were analyzed. The results show that aligning the downstream foil with the upstream foil reduces lift production by 86.5% and drag by 96.3%, leading to a 3.77-fold increase in the lift-to-drag ratio compared to a single airfoil. This improvement is attributed to the vortex–wedge interaction between the upstream vortex and the following foil’s leading edge (wedge), which enhances the gliding efficiency of the posterior body. Furthermore, integrating specific pitching motions with coordinated vortex shedding could further optimize its lift production. These findings provide valuable insights into the aerodynamics of tandem flying snake airfoils, offering guidance for configuring optimal body postures for improving gliding efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Inspired Propulsion and Fluid Mechanics)
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