Effect of caudal on hydrodynamic performance of flapping foil in fish-like swimming

• Kinematics of a flapping foil with two rotational motions is considered.
• The proposed kinematics model is generalized model.
• At lower and higher Strouhal numbers the hydrodynamic performance of foil is optimum when the length of caudal is infinitive.
• Effect of caudal on hydrodynamic performance of flapping foil in fish-like swimming is investigated.

In the present study the effect of caudal length on hydrodynamic performance of flapping foil is investigated. According to reality of swimming of fishes, the kinematics of their oscillation tail is involved with two rotational motions where one of them causes the tail to move in circular direction and the other leads the tail to pitch around its pitch axis. With this concept, a generalized kinematic model is considered. According to simulation of the motion trajectory of flapping foil, it is shown that the length of caudal may affect the hydrodynamic performance. It is shown that at lower and higher Strouhal numbers (St < 0.2 and St > 0.6) the hydrodynamic performance of flapping foil is optimum when the length of caudal is infinitive. It should be noted that at higher caudal length the variation of propulsive efficiency and produced thrust are stopped and these hydrodynamic parameters are kept at constant values. Additionally, it is demonstrated that there is the possibility of improving propulsive efficiency at moderate Strouhal numbers (0.2 < St < 0.6) by manipulation of caudal length. Furthermore, it is shown that in some cases the manipulation of caudal length may increase thrust coefficient as the propulsive efficiency is also increased.