Thrust generation by a heaving flexible foil

Abstract eng:
In the context of swimming, flexibility of the fin has often been argued to be an advantage for the propulsion. Experimental and numerical studies have emphasized the role of the flexibility in propulsion. However, very few analytical works have been developed and are often limited in the linear regime. We will present a new analytical model of a flexible plate immersed in a flow. The model is weakly nonlinear and is based on the beam equation in vacuum for the structure and the coupling with the flow is made through linear potential theory. Comparison between experimental data and predictions are in excellent agreement. Predictions extended to the literature gives good results as well. This optimization study shows that the performance are always maximal when the system reach its resonance.

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