Session: 04-01-01 Biomedical Fluid Mechanics 1

Paper Number: 184417

184417 - Stabilizing Fish-Like Swimming in a Propulsive Vortex Wake via Undulatory Control 

Abstract: 

There has been growing interest in mimicking fish schooling in bio-inspired autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Though there is substantial evidence for the energetic benefits of fish schooling, including recent computational analyses of energy extraction from propulsive vortex streets in trout, achieving stable formations remains a challenge for bio-inspired AUVs and computational fish models. In this work, we developed an undulation control strategy to stabilize the fish in the propulsive vortex wake produced by a hydrofoil. Two-dimensional direct numerical flow simulations (DNS) were conducted with an immersed-boundary method (IBM). The streamwise, lateral, and yaw motions of the fish were enabled by the two-way coupling of the fluid and body dynamics. Thus, the fish can swim freely in the simulated flow environment. The curvature kinematics of the fish were modeled using a traveling-wave equation and controlled by a proportional-differential (PD) controller, with the objectives of keeping the head position laterally within the vortex street and longitudinally close to the foil. Through this framework, we demonstrate the adaptation of kinematics for stable station-keeping and energy extraction in a fish-like vortex street. This framework serves as a digital fish twin on which control strategies can be tested in simulated flow environments of various school formations.

Presenting Author: Jiacheng Guo University of Virginia

Presenting Author Biography: 

Authors:

Jiacheng Guo University of Virginia
Haibo Dong University of Virginia