Search

Recently, it was demonstrated in an inviscid flow that burst-and-coast or intermittent swimming can save energy when compared with continuous swimming and that the energy savings are maximized for large-amplitude pitching motions where flow separation is likely to occur. This paper examines the effects of flow separation on altering inviscid flow predictions. As such, viscous and inviscid flow simulations are presented of a hydrofoil pitching intermittently with large-amplitude motions. It is observed that leading-edge vortex formation and shedding in a viscous flow significantly alter the wake dynamics from the inviscid flow solutions where only trailing-edge shedding is modeled. Moreover, the inviscid flow solutions predict higher peak force production, lower cost of transport, and lower optimal duty cycles than the viscous flow solutions. Despite these differences, the trends in the force production and energetics seen in a viscous flow are well captured by the inviscid flow simulations. Importantly, both predict energy savings on the order of 10-30% for intermittent swimming, and the energy savings increase when the amplitude of motion is increased even when significant leading-edge separation occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inviscid computational results are presented on a self-propelled swimmer modelled as a virtual body combined with a two-dimensional hydrofoil pitching intermittently about its leading edge. Lighthill (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B, vol. 179, 1971, pp. 125–138) originally proposed that this burst-and-coast behaviour can save fish energy during swimming by taking advantage of the viscous Bone–Lighthill boundary layer thinning mechanism. Here, an additional inviscid Garrick mechanism is discovered that allows swimmers to control the ratio of their added-mass thrust-producing forces to their circulatory drag-inducing forces by decreasing their duty cycle, DC, of locomotion. This mechanism can save intermittent swimmers as much as 60% of the energy it takes to swim continuously at the same speed. The inviscid energy savings are shown to increase with increasing amplitude of motion, increase with decreasing Lighthill number, Li, and switch to an energetic cost above continuous swimming for sufficiently low DC. Intermittent swimmers are observed to shed four vortices per cycle that give rise to an asymmetric time-averaged jet structure with both momentum surplus and deficit branches. In addition, previous thrust and power scaling laws of continuous self-propelled swimming are further generalized to include intermittent swimming. The key is that by averaging the thrust and power coefficients over only the bursting period then the intermittent problem can be transformed into a continuous one. Furthermore, the intermittent thrust and power scaling relations are extended to predict the mean speed and cost of transport of swimmers. By tuning a few coefficients with a handful of simulations these self-propelled relations can become predictive. In the current study, the mean speed and cost of transport are predicted to within 3% and 18% of their full-scale values by using these relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]