Related papers: Optimal Strouhal number for swimming animals
Flapping-based propulsive systems rely on fluid-structure interactions to produce thrust. At intermediate and high Reynolds numbers, vortex formation and organization in the wake of such systems are crucial for the generation of a…
Sand is a highly dissipative system, where the local spatial arrangements and densities depend strongly on the applied forces, resulting in fluid-like or solid-like behaviour. This makes sand swimming challenging and intriguing, raising…
Swimming fish and flying insects use the flapping of fins and wings to generate thrust. In contrast, microscopic organisms typically deform their appendages in a wavelike fashion. Since a flapping motion with two degrees of freedom is able,…
Fish typically swim by periodic bending of their bodies. Bending seems to follow a universal rule; it occurs at about one-third from the posterior end of the fish body with a maximum bending angle of about $30^o$. However, the hydrodynamic…
Most aquatic vertebrates swim by lateral flapping of their bodies and caudal fins. While much effort has been devoted to understanding the flapping kinematics and its influence on the swimming efficiency, little is known about the stability…
A forward-facing aerospike have been identified as a passive flow control device for enhancing the aerodynamic efficiency and reducing the heat transfer in high-speed flows. In addition, it has been reported that the presence of a spike…
We consider a swimmer consisting of a collinear assembly of three spheres connected by two slender rods. This swimmer can propel itself forward by varying the lengths of the rods in a way that is not invariant under time reversal. Although…
The wavelength of undulatory kinematics of fish is an important parameter to determine their hydrodynamic performance. This study focuses on numerical examination of this feature by reconstructing the real physiological model and kinematics…
Getting inspired from swimming natural species, a lot of research is being carried out in the field of unmanned underwater vehicles. During the last two decades, more emphasis on the associated hydrodynamic mechanisms, structural dynamics,…
Spermatozoa self-propel by propagating bending waves along a predominantly active elastic flagellum. The organized structure of the "9 + 2" axoneme is lost in the most-distal few microns of the flagellum, and therefore this region is…
Prior research has shown that round and planar buoyant jets "puff" at a frequency that depends on the balance of momentum and buoyancy fluxes at the inlet, as parametrized by the Richardson number. Experiments have revealed the existence of…
The swimming of a spheroid immersed in a viscous fluid and performing surface deformations periodically in time is studied on the basis of Stokes equations of low Reynolds number hydrodynamics. The average over a period of time of the…
The hydrodynamic forces acting on an undulating swimming fish consist of two components: a drag-based resistive force and a reactive force originating from the necessary acceleration of an added mass of water. Lighthill's elongated-body…
Swimming velocity and rate of dissipation of a sphere with surface distortions are discussed on the basis of the Stokes equations of low Reynolds number hydrodynamics. At first the surface distortions are assumed to cause an irrotational…
Motile eukaryotic cells propel themselves in viscous fluids by passing waves of bending deformation down their flagella. An infinitely long flagellum achieves a hydrodynamically optimal low-Reynolds number locomotion when the angle between…
The Strouhal number, ${\rm{St}}=t_{\rm cor}/t_{\rm out}$, measures the temporal coherence of turbulent driving relative to the outer-scale eddy turnover time. In turbulence-box models one commonly sets ${\rm{St}}=1$, although recent work by…
It is shown that the system efficiency of a self-propelled flexible body is ill-defined unless one considers the concept of quasi-propulsive efficiency, defined as the ratio of the power needed to tow a body in rigid-straight condition over…
\emph{Spiroplasma} swimming is studied with a simple model based on resistive-force theory. Specifically, we consider a bacterium shaped in the form of a helix that propagates traveling-wave distortions which flip the handedness of the…
We study experimentally a symmetrical rigid foil performing pitching oscillations around a mean incidence angle ($\alpha_{m}$) with respect to an incoming flow in a hydrodynamic channel at a constant velocity where the Reynolds number…
Inspired by the natural motion of insects, fish, and other animals, flapping airfoils have gained significant importance due to their applications in fields such as ship propulsion, micro aerial vehicles, and autonomous underwater vehicles.…