Fin sweep angle does not determine flapping propulsive performance

Journal Article (2021)
Author(s)

Andhini N. Zurman-Nasution (University of Southampton)

B. Ganapathisubramani (University of Southampton)

Gabriel D. Weymouth (University of Southampton)

Affiliation
External organisation
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2021.0174
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Publication Year
2021
Language
English
Affiliation
External organisation
Issue number
178
Volume number
18

Abstract

The importance of the leading-edge sweep angle of propulsive surfaces used by unsteady swimming and flying animals has been an issue of debate for many years, spurring studies in biology, engineering, and robotics with mixed conclusions. In this work, we provide results from three-dimensional simulations on single-planform finite foils undergoing tail-like (pitch-heave) and flipper-like (twist-roll) kinematics for a range of sweep angles covering a substantial portion of animals while carefully controlling all other parameters. Our primary finding is the negligible 0.043 maximum correlation between the sweep angle and the propulsive force and power for both tail-like and flipper-like motions. This indicates that fish tails and mammal flukes with similar range and size can have a large range of potential sweep angles without significant negative propulsive impact. Although there is a slight benefit to avoiding large sweep angles, this is easily compensated by adjusting the fin's motion parameters such as flapping frequency, amplitude and maximum angle of attack to gain higher thrust and efficiency.

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