A fast Chebyshev method for simulating flexible-wing propulsion

Abstract

We develop a highly efficient numerical method to simulate small-amplitude flapping propulsion by a flexible wing in a nearly inviscid fluid. We allow the wing's elastic modulus and mass density to vary arbitrarily, with an eye towards optimizing these distributions for propulsive performance. The method to determine the wing kinematics is based on Chebyshev collocation of the 1D beam equation as coupled to the surrounding 2D fluid flow. Through small-amplitude analysis of the Euler equations (with trailing-edge vortex shedding), the complete hydrodynamics can be represented by a nonlocal operator that acts on the 1D wing kinematics. A class of semi-analytical solutions permits fast evaluation of this operator with $O(N\log N)$ operations, where $N$ is the number of collocation points on the wing. This is in contrast to the minimum $O(N^2)$ operations required by a direct 2D fluid solver. The coupled wing-fluid problem is thus recast as a PDE with nonlocal operator, which we solve using a preconditioned iterative method. These techniques yield a solver of near-optimal complexity, $O(N\log N)$, allowing one to rapidly search the infinite-dimensional parameter space of all possible material distributions and even perform optimization over this space.

References in corpus (6)

• Resonance and propulsion performance of a heaving flexible wing
• Geometric capture and escape of a microswimmer colliding with an obstacle
• How wing compliance drives the efficiency of self-propelled flapping flyers
• Maximizing propulsive thrust of a driven filament at low Reynolds number via variable flexibility
• A generalized traction integral equation for Stokes flow, with applications to near-wall particle mobility and viscous erosion
• Inviscid scaling laws of a self-propelled pitching airfoil

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Unsteady Propulsion by an Intermittent Swimming Gait
• Clarifying the relationship between efficiency and resonance for flexible inertial swimmers
• Distributed flexibility in inertial swimmers
• Lattices of hydrodynamically interacting flapping swimmers
• Generalization of waving-plate theory to multiple interacting swimmers
• Propulsive performance of oscillating plates with time-periodic flexibility
• Dynamics and locomotion of flexible foils in a frictional environment
• Stability of Two-dimensional Potential Flows Using Bicomplex Numbers
• Convection in a coupled fluid-porous media system