Analysis of Unsteady Incompressible Potential Flow Over a Swimming Slender Fish and a Swept Wing Tail

Abstract

This thesis deals with computing the pressure distribution around a swimming slender fish and the thrust generated by its flapping motion. The body of the fish is modeled as a missile like slender body to which a tail is attached that is modeled as a swept wing. The tail is attached to the tip of the slender body and maintains its slope with it. The motion for the swimming fish is prescribed. The fluid flow is modeled as an unsteady potential flow problem with the flow around the slender body modeled as flow over an array of cylinders of varying radii and the flow over the swept wing modeled using the vortex panel method. The pressure distribution is computed using the unsteady Bernoulli equation. The overall thrust & drag for different parameters are studied and compared