Scaling the propulsive performance of heaving and pitching foils. (2nd June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Floryan, Daniel; Van Buren, Tyler; Rowley, Clarence W.; Smits, Alexander J.
• Is Part Of: Journal of fluid mechanics. Volume 822(2017)
• Page Start: 386
• Page End: 397
• Publication Date: 2017-06-02
• Subjects: biological fluid dynamics, -- propulsion, -- swimming/flying; Fluid mechanics -- Periodicals; 532.005
• DOI: 10.1017/jfm.2017.302
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-1120

Abstract

Abstract : Scaling laws for the propulsive performance of rigid foils undergoing oscillatory heaving and pitching motions are presented. Water tunnel experiments on a nominally two-dimensional flow validate the scaling laws, with the scaled data for thrust, power and efficiency all showing excellent collapse. The analysis indicates that the behaviour of the foils depends on both Strouhal number and reduced frequency, but for motions where the viscous drag is small the thrust closely follows a linear dependence on reduced frequency. The scaling laws are also shown to be consistent with biological data on swimming aquatic animals.