Meeting Abstract
Many owls species are known to be able to hunt in effective stealth to themselves and their prey, a feat which is attributed in full or in part to their wing specializations. Two of these specializations, the trailing-edge fringe and the velvety pennula on the upper-wing surface, are investigated using mathematical models with the goal to establish a physics-based understanding of their associated noise generation. These models take into account the porous and/or elastic nature of these owl wing features to examine their ability to potentially disrupt standard routes of noise production in low-speed flows. An emphasis is placed on the relevance of noise results to the range of sizes of owl species, with accompanying morphological measurements where appropriate. The technological impact and applications of noise-reduction technologies inspired by owl plumage will also be described.
