Effect of the stiffness, inertia and oscillation kinematics on the thrust generation and efficiency of an oscillating-foil propulsion system

摘要: Abstract This paper presents an experimental study that has investigated the effects of foil stiffness, inertia and oscillation kinematics on thrust generation efficiency a flexible oscillating-foil propulsion system. A semi-empirical damped-oscillator model, which included quadratic damping element, was developed fitted to results. The model used develop explanations for observed trends in propulsive performance. For all foils constructed study, consistent relationship between frequency ratio observed. maximum occurred at same resulted both beneficial phasing deformation with respect driven motion also overall amplitude motion. equivalent resonant operating ratio, stiffer heavier were found greater thrust, likely because lower effective allowed Increasing cause providing shift towards values. use combined pitch heave motions shown increase while reducing compared heave-only case.