Experimental Investigations of Elastic Tail Propulsion at Low Reynolds Number

Preprint

20 June 2006

preprint
Published by arXiv in arXiv

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.cond-mat/0606527

Abstract

A simple way to generate propulsion at low Reynolds number is to periodically oscillate a passive flexible filament. Here we present a macroscopic experimental investigation of such a propulsive mechanism. A robotic swimmer is constructed and both tail shape and propulsive force are measured. Filament characteristics and the actuation are varied and resulting data are quantitatively compared with existing linear and nonlinear theories.

Keywords

LOW REYNOLDS NUMBER
PROPULSION AT LOW
REYNOLDS NUMBER
TAIL PROPULSION
ELASTIC TAIL
PROPULSIVE
FLEXIBLE
FILAMENT
ROBOTIC

All Related Versions

Version 1, 2006-06-20, ArXiv
Published version: Physics of Fluids, 18 (9), 091701.

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