Fin sweep angle does not determine flapping propulsive performance
Fin sweep angle does not determine flapping propulsive performance
The importance of the leading-edge sweep angle of propulsive surfaces used by unsteady swimming and flying animals has been an issue of debate for many years, spurring studies in biology, engineering, and robotics with mixed conclusions. In this work, we provide results from three-dimensional simulations on single-planform finite foils undergoing tail-like (pitch-heave) and flipper-like (twist-roll) kinematics for a range of sweep angles covering a substantial portion of animals while carefully controlling all other parameters. Our primary finding is the negligible 0.043 maximum correlation between the sweep angle and the propulsive force and power for both tail-like and flipper-like motions. This indicates that fish tails and mammal flukes with similar range and size can have a large range of potential sweep angles without significant negative propulsive impact. Although there is a slight benefit to avoiding large sweep angles, this is easily compensated by adjusting the fin's motion parameters such as flapping frequency, amplitude and maximum angle of attack to gain higher thrust and efficiency.
bio-mechanical evolution, biolocomotion, flapping foils
20210174
Nasution, Andhini
b9e5a90e-08c3-4922-8307-26c420e854d8
Ganapathisubramani, Bharathram
5e69099f-2f39-4fdd-8a85-3ac906827052
Weymouth, Gabriel
b0c85fda-dfed-44da-8cc4-9e0cc88e2ca0
26 May 2021
Nasution, Andhini
b9e5a90e-08c3-4922-8307-26c420e854d8
Ganapathisubramani, Bharathram
5e69099f-2f39-4fdd-8a85-3ac906827052
Weymouth, Gabriel
b0c85fda-dfed-44da-8cc4-9e0cc88e2ca0
Nasution, Andhini, Ganapathisubramani, Bharathram and Weymouth, Gabriel
(2021)
Fin sweep angle does not determine flapping propulsive performance.
Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 18 (178), , [2021174].
(doi:10.1098/rsif.2021.0174).
Abstract
The importance of the leading-edge sweep angle of propulsive surfaces used by unsteady swimming and flying animals has been an issue of debate for many years, spurring studies in biology, engineering, and robotics with mixed conclusions. In this work, we provide results from three-dimensional simulations on single-planform finite foils undergoing tail-like (pitch-heave) and flipper-like (twist-roll) kinematics for a range of sweep angles covering a substantial portion of animals while carefully controlling all other parameters. Our primary finding is the negligible 0.043 maximum correlation between the sweep angle and the propulsive force and power for both tail-like and flipper-like motions. This indicates that fish tails and mammal flukes with similar range and size can have a large range of potential sweep angles without significant negative propulsive impact. Although there is a slight benefit to avoiding large sweep angles, this is easily compensated by adjusting the fin's motion parameters such as flapping frequency, amplitude and maximum angle of attack to gain higher thrust and efficiency.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 24 April 2021
Published date: 26 May 2021
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s).
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords:
bio-mechanical evolution, biolocomotion, flapping foils
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 448856
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/448856
ISSN: 1742-5689
PURE UUID: c48434af-b8c1-489c-9d36-6dbffc28e558
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 07 May 2021 16:30
Last modified: 20 Apr 2024 02:22
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Andhini Nasution
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics