Fin sweep angle does not determine flapping propulsive performance

Andhini N. Zurman-Nasution, Bharathram Ganapathisubramani, Gabriel D. Weymouth*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2021174
JournalJournal of the Royal Society Interface
Volume18
Issue number178
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • bio-mechanical evolution
  • biolocomotion
  • flapping foils

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