Optimization of the efficiency of a biomimetic marine propulsor using CFD

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to employ a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) procedure to optimize a biomimetic marine propulsor. This propulsor is based on an undulating panel which emulates the movement of a fin fish. The numerical model has been employed to analyze the hydrodynamics and improve the efficiency. Particularly, the fin shape has been studied as measure to improve the efficiency. Three fin shapes have been analyzed, rectangular, elliptic and lunate. The results have indicated that, for the same area, the lunate shape is the most efficient.

Keywords

• Marine propulsion
• biomimetics
• CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)