When the duck comes out of the water, it is shaken with its feathers and becomes dry.This means that water can't
First, the team needed to make sure that water could only penetrate directly through the feathers, rather than just seeping through their outer edges.To achieve this, the authors modeled one feather at a time, leaving only a small area exposed.
Researchers sealed each layer, retreating byequal distance between feathers. They then poured water onto the top open surface. The stack was placed in a pressure chamber and gas pressure was used to push the water down through the feathers. A camera was installed at the bottom to observe the water passing through the layers.
There are micro-sized holes in the feathers, through these tiny slits passesA duck sitting on the surface of a pond does not experienceHowever, when a bird dives down, they encounter a constant increase in hydrostatic pressure, which is familiar to anyone who dives deep underwater.
The authors found that as the number oflayers of feathers increases the pressure that is needed to push the water. This establishes a kind of baseline, the maximum pressure to which the feathers hold the water entering them, but prevent the water from reaching the duck's skin.
The authors also noticed that different species of ducks tend to have the exact number of layers of feathers needed to avoid getting completely wet while diving.For example, the mallard has four layers of feathers.A typical mallard, it corresponds to the hydrostatic pressure that its three layers can withstand.In this way, at least one layer of feathers remains dry after immersion, allowing the duck to stay dry.
The synthetic feathers gave almost identical results during the tests, and the scientists also plan to use the knowledge gained in the creation of water vehicles.For example, it is possible to apply multi-layer synthetic feathers to the exterior of the boat to make it easier to move through the water.
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