Wake Vortex Structure Characteristics of a Flexible Oscillating Fin

✍ Scribed by Zhi-dong Wang; Pei Chen; Xiao-qing Zhang

• Publisher: SciencePress (China)
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 518 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1672-6529
• DOI: 10.1016/s1672-6529(08)60006-2

✦ Synopsis

We compute the wake of a two-dimensional and three-dimensional flexible fin in an unsteady flow field with heaving and pitching motions using FLUENT. Deflexion mode is used for a non-uniform cantilever beam with non-uniformly distributed load. The effect of chordwise deflexion length on the characteristics of propulsion is discussed for two-dimensional flexible fin.

The thrust coefficient decreases, propulsive efficiency increases and the intensity of turbulence attenuates gradually as the deflexion length increases. For a three-dimensional flexible fin, the intensity of the vortex in the plane of symmetry is higher than that in the plane at 3/4 span length of the caudal fin. But the propulsive performance achieved is not what we expected with the given deflexion mode.