A numerical investigation of controllably flexible hydrofoil in laminar flows

Aquatic animals, such as fishes, whales, seals and penguins, are naturally born to be flexible and deformable, which promise their effective locomotion through water. They are able to produce hydrodynamic thrust by active control of their body configurations. That is, the aquatic animals could wiggle their flexible bodies at an appropriate frequency and amplitude suitable to the hydrodynamics surrounding them. However, the mechanism for the active controls has not been adequately understood yet and attracts current research. One obstacle which hinders such investigation is the difficulty in experimental measurements of the flows around the wiggling bodies, and thus numerical simulation is becoming an indispensable alternative. In the paper, an immersed boundary method is developed to simulate the NACA 65-10 hydrofoil. It is observed that a wiggling hydrofoil exhibits a higher thrust while a stationary hydrofoil offers little improvement. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-540-75995-9_214.pdf