Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Flapping Foil Propulsion System for Marine Vehicles

By Anties K Martin

In nature, in general, birds locomote by fluttering their wings and fishes do by oscillating its fins, which are expected to have a much better propulsive efficiency than the man-made propulsive systems for air-borne and water-borne vehicles. The engineering translation of the aquatic animal propulsion systems for use in marine vehicles propulsion is expected to result in consuming less power, low fuel consumption, and reduced CO2 emission. The oscillating fin-like propulsion system becomes more ecofriendly by way of not disturbing the aquatic flora and fauna in its operational vicinity. A proper replication of such propulsion system to marine vehicles are expected to provide it with good stopping and turning abilities as do the fishes have. This motivated many researchers to look into the development and application of flapping foil propulsion system as an alternative to the conventional screw propulsion system used in the propulsion of marine vehicles. In the present work, which includes both numerical and experimental studies, a flapping foil mechanism is designed, developed, analyzed, and implemented to study the propulsion characteristics of an oscillating foil in free stream and behind hull conditions. In the present numerical study, the hydrofoil is allowed to oscillate in different modes of oscillation such as pure heave, pure pitch, and the combined mode of heave and pitch motions in free stream to assess the effectiveness of these modes on the thrust generation and the propulsive efficiency. Combined mode is having better performance compared to others. Subsequently, 2D and 3D oscillating foils are analyzed and the hydrodynamic performance deterioration due to end losses in 3D foil is estimated. Further studies looked into the effect of tip displacement amplitude and frequency on the oscillating foil performance to find out their effect on the foil generated thrust and its efficiency

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 8119549732
• ISBN13: 9788119549733
• Release Date: August 2023
• Publisher: Anties K Martin
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"