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Drag reduction in fish-like locomotion

Author(s)
Barrett, D.S.; Triantafyllou, M.S.; Yue, D.K.P.; Grosenbaugh, M.A.; Wolfgang, M.J.
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Copyright: Cambridge University Press This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.
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Abstract
We present experimental force and power measurements demonstrating that the power required to propel an actively swimming, streamlined, fish-like body is significantly smaller than the power needed to tow the body straight and rigid at the same speed U. The data have been obtained through accurate force and motion measurements on a laboratory fish-like robotic mechanism, 1:2m long, covered with a flexible skin and equipped with a tail fin, at Reynolds numbers up to 10^6, with turbulence stimulation. The lateral motion of the body is in the form of a travelling wave with wavelength lambda and varying amplitude along the length, smoothly increasing from the front to the tail end. A parametric investigation shows sensitivity of drag reduction to the non-dimensional frequency (Strouhal number), amplitude of body oscillation and wavelength lambda, and angle of attack and phase angle of the tail fin. A necessary condition for drag reduction is that the phase speed of the body wave be greater than the forward speed U. Power estimates using an inviscid numerical scheme compare favourably with the experimental data. The method employs a boundary-integral method for arbitrary flexible body geometry and motions, while the wake shed from the fish-like form is modelled by an evolving desingularized dipole sheet.
Date issued
1999
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/25618
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Citation
Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 392, p.183-212 (1999)
Keywords
drag reduction, fish-like locomotion

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