Inline motion in flapping foils for improved force vectoring performance

In this thesis, I study the effect of adding in-line oscillation to heaving and pitching foils using a power downstroke. I show that far from being a limitation imposed by the muscular structure of certain animals, in-line motion can be a powerful means to either substantially augment the mean lift, or reduce oscillatory lift and increase thrust. Additionally, I show that the use of a model-based optimization scheme, driving a sequence of experimental runs, allows the ability for flapping foils to tightly vector and keep the force in the desired direction, hence improving locomotion and maneuvering. I employ Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) to visualize the various wake patterns of these foil trajectories and a force transducer to evaluate their performance within a towing-tank experiment.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Izraelevitz, Jacob (Jacob Samuel)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• .

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85224

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/85224