Nature in engineering for monitoring the oceans: towards a bio-inspired flexible AUV operating in an unsteady flow
Nature in engineering for monitoring the oceans: towards a bio-inspired flexible AUV operating in an unsteady flow
It has long been understood that swimming marine animals have evolved capabilities in terms of speed, manoeuvrability, and efficiency which are desirable for underwater vehicles. Despite this, solutions inspired by nature, or bio-inspiration, are very rarely applied to solve engineering challenges. In particular, it is understood that fish have the ability to alter their mode of swimming to interact with naturally produced vortices as a method of conserving energy and in certain instances extracting energy from a flow. This paper considers whether a bio-inspired flexible autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) could exploit unsteady flow features to reduce its cost of transport. An analytical model is developed which allows an AUV designer to predict which flow frequencies excite the natural vibration modes of a flexible cylinder. It is demonstrated that by placing a flexible cylinder in an unsteady flow, such as downstream of a bluff body, a similar mechanism to that used by fish may be exploited to move the cylinder upstream with no power input except that extracted from the flow.
267-278
Phillips, Alexander B.
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Blake, J.I.R.
6afa420d-0936-4acc-861b-36885406c891
Smith, B.
78bb0d18-0928-4b34-adef-a291005c415a
Boyd, S.W.
bcbdefe0-5acf-4d6a-8a16-f4abf7c78b10
Griffiths, G.
2887c3c7-95f2-4834-b3f6-0284344d3580
2010
Phillips, Alexander B.
f565b1da-6881-4e2a-8729-c082b869028f
Blake, J.I.R.
6afa420d-0936-4acc-861b-36885406c891
Smith, B.
78bb0d18-0928-4b34-adef-a291005c415a
Boyd, S.W.
bcbdefe0-5acf-4d6a-8a16-f4abf7c78b10
Griffiths, G.
2887c3c7-95f2-4834-b3f6-0284344d3580
Phillips, Alexander B., Blake, J.I.R., Smith, B., Boyd, S.W. and Griffiths, G.
(2010)
Nature in engineering for monitoring the oceans: towards a bio-inspired flexible AUV operating in an unsteady flow.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part M: Journal of Engineering for the Maritime Environment, 224 (4), .
(doi:10.1243/14750902JEME201).
Abstract
It has long been understood that swimming marine animals have evolved capabilities in terms of speed, manoeuvrability, and efficiency which are desirable for underwater vehicles. Despite this, solutions inspired by nature, or bio-inspiration, are very rarely applied to solve engineering challenges. In particular, it is understood that fish have the ability to alter their mode of swimming to interact with naturally produced vortices as a method of conserving energy and in certain instances extracting energy from a flow. This paper considers whether a bio-inspired flexible autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) could exploit unsteady flow features to reduce its cost of transport. An analytical model is developed which allows an AUV designer to predict which flow frequencies excite the natural vibration modes of a flexible cylinder. It is demonstrated that by placing a flexible cylinder in an unsteady flow, such as downstream of a bluff body, a similar mechanism to that used by fish may be exploited to move the cylinder upstream with no power input except that extracted from the flow.
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Published date: 2010
Organisations:
Ocean Technology and Engineering
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Local EPrints ID: 151073
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/151073
ISSN: 1475-0902
PURE UUID: 5b66941f-08ab-413b-9514-82825b2fa62a
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Date deposited: 27 May 2010 11:45
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:50
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Author:
Alexander B. Phillips
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B. Smith
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G. Griffiths
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