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Scaling the self-propulsive performance of pitching and heaving flexible plates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2022

Kui Liu Open the ORCID record for Kui Liu [Opens in a new window] ,
Xuechao Liu  and
Haibo Huang Open the ORCID record for Haibo Huang [Opens in a new window]
Kui Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China
Xuechao Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China
Haibo Huang*
Affiliation:
Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China
*
†Email address for correspondence: huanghb@ustc.edu.cn
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Abstract

Self-propulsive performances of the flexible plates undergoing pitching and heaving motions are investigated numerically. The effects of multiple key dimensionless parameters are considered, such as bending stiffness, heaving amplitude, pitching amplitude and flapping frequency. Despite so many influence factors, results indicate that the cruising speed $U$ (or the cruising Reynolds number $Re_c$), the thrust $T$ and the input power $P$ can be summarized as some simple scaling laws vs the flapping Reynolds number $Re_f$. In the heaving motion, the scaling laws may be not fully independent of bending stiffness because in the motion the role of bending stiffness is more complicated for the thrust generation. Our scaling laws are well supported by biological data on swimming aquatic animals.

JFM classification

Aerodynamics: Flow-structure interactions Biological Fluid Dynamics: Swimming/flying Biological Fluid Dynamics: Propulsion
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 936 , 10 April 2022 , A9
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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