"Harvesting" friction?

[Escalefter]

I'm "creating" a creature (actually just drawing it, but I want it to be almost like a bluprint with some sound scientific principles). I want to have a flying creature with a special outside shell. The general structure is very odd and doesn't need to be explained but basically I want this creature to actually get some energy from the heat that's generated by the friction from air resistance. This was basically my idea:

 

The surface of the "body and wings" would be made of a hard surface that's actually a series of regularly spaced loops (like the hard side of Velcro only loops instead of hooks), with a pore spaced in between each loop. As the creature dives through the air, the air particles that rub against the surface generate heat. In rapid motion, cool pegs actually located beneath the "shell" poke through each regularly-spaced pore, and the part that pokes through touches these thick loops, now packed with heat energy from the friction. It would then submerge and carry that super-heated portion to an area that converts this thermal energy into mechanical energy that would be used to actually move the "wings" and such.

 

Of couse this structure would have to be incredibly stable and hard, the loops at the right angle to avoid being snapped off. They'd have to be rather thick, and even still...

 

Another issue is that the "pegs" (substances that stick through the pores to collect the heat) would have to be cool enough to conduct that thermal energy. And, it would take some kind of effort to cool them down again. Is there some kind of conservation of energy rule that applies to such a system?

 

If this creature is using no energy with its actual "wings" and is just dive-bombing, could it actually collect a surplus of energy by simply generating this frictional heat? After all, it's coming from the air particles, not collisions caused by it exerting itself.

 

I know we probably don't have the technology to do this, but as a visual artist with a passion for science, I'd like to know how feasible it is.

[psynapse]

That's a cool idea. Unfortunatle I don't think this creature will not get suffiecient energy as the energy it would have to expend to climb to a height to dive bomb in the first place. Maybe off a cliff, no? Also the heat will probably be negligiable because you have constant wind chill factor as well. It is a cool idea for some sort of alien life form on another planet with a different landscape perhaps. It's an abstract idea and I think you should keep working on it evolving and changing it. Who knows you might get an actual feasable organism that, on paper, would thrive on earth.

[Escalefter]

Actually, this is a type of alien life, but using Earth standards is a good way to make sure you're not way off the mark where it comes to physics. As for wind chill, very true, I hadn't seriously considered that. I guess all I could think about was all that intense heat that space shuttles encounter as they plummet to earth even where the atmosphere is thin isn't much affected by the chill of the air. As for needing initial energy, the creature would definitely need some chemical energy to get up there, I was just thinking of the down-trip, and whether enough could be "stored" during mid-dive to allow a creature to lift its weight a significant distance. If gravity were part of the system it could almost be a perpetual motion machine.

[[Tycho?]]

I think conservation of energy plays a role here. Generating air frition means you are very un-aerodynamic, and things that are very un-aerodynamic have a way of falling more than they do flying.

[Edtharan]

I think conservation of energy plays a role here. Generating air frition means you are very un-aerodynamic, and things that are very un-aerodynamic have a way of falling more than they do flying.

Trrue.

 

First the creature has to expend energy to move. This creates friction. The friction robs the enegry used by the creature to move then the creature take this energy from the friction and uses it to move.

 

This creature would go nowhere. The energy loss due to leakage of the heat away form the body (ie: it's not a 100% closed system) would rapidly bring the creature to a halt (and if it is flying that is not a good thing).

 

It would be more energy efficient to have a highly streamlined body that reduced friction.

[ecoli]

Perhaps if the creature lived in a really windy climate, and it had feathers or hair that vibrated in the wind, and then somehow was able to convert that mechanical energy into usuable chemical energy.

[freelancejak]

Is "harvesting" friction this creature's only or primary means of feeding? If so, I'm with ecoli that the environment would have to be very windy. I suppose that to rest and feed, the creature may need to teather itself to something stationary to let wind pass by without actually moving.

 

This might be more feasable with a different atmosphere than the 100 kPa Nitrogen/Oxygen one of earth.

 

What sort of environment does this creature live in?