You are invited to hear

a talk by

Department of Mechanics
Ecole Polytechnique
Paris

About the Talk

The interactions between external flow and plants are fascinating, by the variety of geometries, motions, sizes and mechanisms involved. They also play an important role in the life of plants, and are a new source of bioinspiration, based on very robust solutions. I will summarize some recent results in the main topics involved, from static interactions to dynamics interactions, at the scale of leaves, whole plants and canopies. At each step I will try to underline some biomimetic perspectives and will exemplify this particularly on drag reduction and on vibration damping. Emphasis will be on the specificities of these fluid-structure interactions, in comparison with more classical aeroelasticity problems.

About Dr. Emmanuel de Langre

Dr. Emmanuel de Langre is Professor of Mechanics in Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France. He received his Ph.D. in Fracture Mechanics in 1984 and then worked until 1997 as an engineer in the French nuclear industry. He then joined Ecole Polytechnique to start a group on fluid-structure interactions. He is presently the Chief Editor of the Journal of Fluids and Structures. His present research interests are in the broad field of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) and include plant bio-mechanics, energy harvesting based on FSI, vortex-induced vibrations, wind effects and aeroelasticity. He is the author of a recent on-line course (MOOC) on fluid-solid interactions that attracted more than 3000 students.