scholarly journals A Fluid–Structure Interaction Study on a Bionic Fish Fin With Non-Uniform Stiffness Distribution

Author(s):  
Yang Luo ◽  
Qing Xiao ◽  
Guangyu Shi

Abstract In this paper, the propulsive performance of a caudal peduncle-fin swimmer mimicking a bio-inspired robotic fish model is numerically studied using a fully coupled FSI solver. The model consists of a rigid peduncle and a flexible fin which pitches in a uniform flow. The flexible fin is modeled as a thin plate assigned with non-uniformly distributed stiffness. A finite volume method based in-house Navier–Stokes solver is used to solve the fluid equations, while the fin deformation is resolved using a finite element code. The effect of the fin flexibility on the propulsive performance is investigated. The numerical results indicate that compliance has a significant influence on performance. Under the parameters studied in this paper, the medium flexible fin exhibits remarkable efficiency improvement, as well as thrust augment, while the least flexible fin shows no obvious difference from the rigid one. However, for the most flexible fin, although the thrust production decreases sharply, the efficiency reaches the maximum value. It should be noted that by non-uniformly distributing the rigidity across the caudal fin, our model is able to replicate some fin deformation patterns observed in both the live fish and the experimental robotic fish.

Author(s):  
Yang Luo ◽  
Qing Xiao ◽  
Guangyu Shi ◽  
Zhiming Yuan ◽  
Li Wen

Abstract In this paper, the propulsive performance of a caudal peduncle-fin swimmer mimicking a bio-inspired robotic fish model is numerically studied using a fully coupled FSI solver. The model consists of a rigid peduncle and a flexible fin which pitches in a uniform flow. The flexible fin is modeled as a thin plate assigned with non-uniformly distributed stiffness. A finite volume method based in-house Navier-Stokes solver is used to solve the fluid equations while the fin deformation is resolved using a finite element code. The effect of the fin flexibility on the propulsive performance is investigated. The numerical results indicate that the compliance has a significant influence on the performance. Under the parameters studied in this paper, the medium flexible fin exhibits remarkable efficiency improvement as well as thrust augment, while the least flexible fin shows no obvious difference from the rigid one. However, for the most flexible fin, although the thrust production decreases sharply, the efficiency reaches the maximum value. It should be noted that by non-uniformly distributing the rigidity across the caudal fin, our model is able to replicate some fin deformation patterns observed in both the live fish and the experimental robotic fish.


Author(s):  
Elisabeth Longatte

This work is concerned with the modelling of the interaction of a fluid with a rigid or a flexible elastic cylinder in the presence of axial or cross-flow. A partitioned procedure is involved to perform the computation of the fully-coupled fluid solid system. The fluid flow is governed by the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations and modeled by using a fractional step scheme combined with a co-located finite volume method for space discretisation. The motion of the fluid domain is accounted for by a moving mesh strategy through an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation. Solid dyncamics is modeled by a finite element method in the linear elasticity framework and a fixed point method is used for the fluid solid system computation. In the present work two examples are presented to show the method robustness and efficiency.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Ebrahimi ◽  
Madjid Abbaspour

The hydrodynamics and energetics of bioinspired oscillating mechanisms have received significant attentions by engineers and biologists to develop the underwater and air vehicles. Undulating and pure heaving (or plunging) motions are two significant mechanisms which are utilized in nature to provide propulsive, maneuvering, and stabilization forces. This study aims to elucidate and compare the propulsive vortical signature and performance of these two important natural mechanisms through a systematic numerical study. Navier-Stokes equations are solved, by a pressure-based finite volume method solver, in an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) framework domain containing a2D NACA0012foil moving with prescribed kinematics. Some of the important findings are (1) the thrust production of the heaving foil begins at lower St and has a greater growing slope with respect to the St; (2) the undulating mechanism has some limitations to produce high thrust forces; (3) the undulating foil shows a lower power consumption and higher efficiency; (4) changing the Reynolds number (Re) in a constant St affects the performance of the oscillations; and (5) there is a distinguishable appearance of leading edge vortices in the wake of the heaving foil without observable ones in the wake of the undulating foil, especially at higher St.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 841
Author(s):  
Yuzhen Jin ◽  
Huang Zhou ◽  
Linhang Zhu ◽  
Zeqing Li

A three-dimensional numerical study of a single droplet splashing vertically on a liquid film is presented. The numerical method is based on the finite volume method (FVM) of Navier–Stokes equations coupled with the volume of fluid (VOF) method, and the adaptive local mesh refinement technology is adopted. It enables the liquid–gas interface to be tracked more accurately, and to be less computationally expensive. The relationship between the diameter of the free rim, the height of the crown with different numbers of collision Weber, and the thickness of the liquid film is explored. The results indicate that the crown height increases as the Weber number increases, and the diameter of the crown rim is inversely proportional to the collision Weber number. It can also be concluded that the dimensionless height of the crown decreases with the increase in the thickness of the dimensionless liquid film, which has little effect on the diameter of the crown rim during its growth.


Author(s):  
Xiaoxu Du ◽  
Huan Wang

The successful operation of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) requires the capability to return to a dock. A number of underwater docking technologies have been proposed and tested in the past. The docking allows the AUV to recharge its batteries, download data and upload new instructions, which is helpful to improve the working time and efficiency. During the underwater docking process, unsteady hydrodynamic interference occurs between the docking device and an AUV. To ensure a successful docking, it is very important that the underwater docking hydrodynamics of AUV is understood. In this paper, numerical simulations based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solutions were carried out for a 1.85m long AUV with maximum 0.2 m in diameter during the docking process. The two-dimensional AUV model without fin and rudder was used in the simulation. The mathematical model based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations was established. The finite volume method (FVM) and the dynamic structured mesh technique were used. SIMPLE algorithm and the k-ε turbulence model in the Descartes coordinates were also adopted. The hydrodynamics characteristics of different docking states were analyzed, such as the different docking velocity, the docking device including baffle or not. The drag coefficients of AUV in the process of docking were computed for various docking conditions, i.e., the AUV moving into the docking in the speed of 1m/s, 2m/s, 5m/s. The results indicate that the drag coefficient increases slowly in the process of AUV getting close to the docking device. When the AUV moves into the docking device, the drag coefficient increases rapidly. Then the drag coefficient decreases rapidly. The drag coefficient decreases with the increase of velocity when AUV enters the docking device. It was also found that the drag coefficient can be effectively reduced by dislodging the baffle of docking device.


2010 ◽  
Vol 297-301 ◽  
pp. 924-929
Author(s):  
Inès Bhouri Baouab ◽  
Nejla Mahjoub Said ◽  
Hatem Mhiri ◽  
Georges Le Palec ◽  
Philippe Bournot

The present work consists in a numerical examination of the dispersion of pollutants discharged from a bent chimney and crossing twin similar cubic obstacles placed in the lee side of the source. The resulting flow is assumed to be steady, three-dimensional and turbulent. Its modelling is based upon the resolution of the Navier Stokes equations by means of the finite volume method together with the RSM (Reynolds Stress Model) turbulent model. This examination aims essentially at detailing the wind flow perturbations, the recirculation and turbulence generated by the presence of the twin cubic obstacles placed tandem at different spacing distances (gaps): W = 4 h, W = 2 h and W = 1 h where W is the distance separating both buildings.


Author(s):  
Hongsik Im ◽  
Xiangying Chen ◽  
Gecheng Zha

Detached eddy simulation of an aeroelastic self-excited instability, flutter in NASA Rotor 67 is conducted using a fully coupled fluid/structre interaction. Time accurate compressible 3D Navier-Stokes equations are solved with a system of 5 decoupled modal equations in a fully coupled manner. The 5th order WENO scheme for the inviscid flux and the 4th order central differencing for the viscous flux are used to accurately capture interactions between the flow and vibrating blades with the DES (detached eddy simulation) of turbulence. A moving mesh concept that can improve mesh quality over the rotor tip clearance was implemented. Flutter simulations were first conducted from choke to stall using 4 blade passages. Stall flutter initiated at rotating stall onset, grows dramatically with resonance. The frequency analysis shows that resonance occurs at the first mode of the rotor blade. Before stall, the predicted responses of rotor blades decayed with time, resulting in no flutter. Full annulus simulation at peak point verifies that one can use the multi-passage approach with periodic boundary for the flutter prediction.


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