Mechanical Engineering Graduate Seminar

Speaker: Professor Sunghwan “Sunny” Jung, Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University.

Zoom Link: https://kaust.zoom.us/j/93470060850

ID: 93470060850

Abstract

In nature, many animals dive into water at high speeds; e.g. humans dive from cliffs, birds plunge, and aquatic animals porpoise and breach. Diving provides opportunities for animals to find prey and escape from predators, and is a source of great excitement for humans. First, we present a unifying view of the impact force on a body in terms of its overall diving shape. A similarity in the morphology of diving fronts unifies the slamming force across diving animals and humans. The second problem is how several seabirds (e.g. Gannets and Boobies) dive into water at up to 24 m/s without any injuries. This study examines the effects of their beak shape reduce  the impact force on the body. Lastly, we showed how densely packed contour feathers around the bird body would spread localized impact force while maintaining plumage integrity. Pressure on the skin at the impact point can be reduced by as much as 3 times the pressure if feathers had been absent.

Bio

Dr. Sunghwan (Sunny) Jung is a professor of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. He received his PhD in Physics at the University of Texas at Austin and then a postdoc at the Courant Institute at NYU & a math instructor at MIT. Prior to Cornell, he was a faculty member at Virginia Tech for 8 years. His research interest is to investigate a variety of mechanics problems emerging from the interaction of biological systems with surrounding environments by understanding their complex morphology and behaviors.  He is a recipient of the NSF Mid-career Advancement award (2021), the ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator award (2012), and the Harrington fellow (2004).