Abstract
Fish are able to make good use of vortices. In a complex flow field, many fish continue to maintain both efficient cruising and maneuverability. Traditional man-made propulsion systems perform poorly in complex flow fields. With fish-like propulsion systems, it is important to pay more attention to complex flow fields. In this paper, the influence of vortices on the hydrodynamic performance of 2-D flapping-foils was investigated. The flapping-foil heaved and pitched under the influence of inflow vortices generated by an oscillating D-section cylinder. A numerical simulation was run based the finite volume method, using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FLUENT with Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations applied. In addition, dynamic mesh technology and post processing systems were also fully used. The calculations showed four modes of interaction. The hydrodynamic performance of flapping-foils was analyzed and the results compared with experimental data. This validated the numerical simulation, confirming that flapping-foils can increase efficiency by absorbing energy from inflow vortices.
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Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 50579007, 50879014 and the specialized research fund for the doctoral program of higher education under Grant No. 200802170010.
Xi Zhang was born in 1985. He received the bachelor degree in Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering at Harbin Engineering University. His current research interests include CFD and bionic engineering.
Yu-min Su was born in 1960. He is a professor at the School of Shipbuilding Engineering, Harbin Engineering University. His current research interests include fluid dynamics and marine propeller design, system integration of underwater vehicles
Liang Yang was born in 1980. He received his Ph.D degree from Harbin Engineering University. His current research interests include CFD of ship and bionic engineering.
Zhao-li Wang was born in 1983. He received M.Sc in Design and Construction of Naval Architecture and Ocean Structure in 2008. Now he is working for the Ph.D degree in Engineering Mechanics at Harbin Engineering University.
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Zhang, X., Su, Ym., Yang, L. et al. Hydrodynamic performance of flapping-foil propulsion in the influence of vortices. J. Marine. Sci. Appl. 9, 213–219 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11804-010-9074-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11804-010-9074-0