© 2002 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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Maneuvering Hydrodynamics of Fish and Small Underwater Vehicles1
1 Propulsion, Hydrodynamics and Silencing Division, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport, Rhode Island 02841
The understanding of fish maneuvering and its application to underwater rigid bodies are considered. The goal is to gain insight into stealth. The recent progress made in NUWC is reviewed. Fish morphology suggests that control fins for maneuverability have unique scalar relationships irrespective of their speed type. Maneuvering experiments are carried out with fish that are fast yet maneuverable. The gap in maneuverability between fish and small underwater vehicles is quantified. The hydrodynamics of a dorsal fin based brisk maneuvering device and a dual flapping foil device, as applied to rigid cylindrical bodies, are described. The role of pectoral wings in maneuvering and station keeping near surface waves is discussed. A pendulum model of dolphin swimming is presented to show that body length and tail flapping frequency are related. For nearly neutrally buoyant bodies, Froude number and maneuverability are related. Analysis of measurements indicates that the Strouhal number of dolphins is a constant. The mechanism of discrete and deterministic vortex shedding from oscillating control surfaces has the property of large amplitude unsteady forcing and an exquisite phase dependence, which makes it inherently amenable to active control for precision maneuvering. Theoretical control studies are carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of maneuverability of biologically inspired bodies under surface waves. The application of fish hydrodynamics to the silencing of propulsors is considered. Two strategies for the reduction of radiated noise are developed. The effects of a reduction of rotational rate are modeled. The active cambering of blades made of digitally programmable artificial muscles, and their thrust enhancement, are demonstrated. Next, wake momentum filling is carried out by artificial muscles at the trailing edge of a stator blade of an upstream stator propulsor, and articulating them like a fish tail. A reduction of radiated noise, called blade tonals, is demonstrated theoretically.