Flow associated with Lighthill's elongated-body theory

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Eloy, Christophe, Michelin, Sébastien
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866916704400965632
author Eloy, Christophe
Michelin, Sébastien
author_facet Eloy, Christophe
Michelin, Sébastien
contents The hydrodynamic forces acting on an undulating swimming fish consist of two components: a drag-based resistive force and a reactive force originating from the necessary acceleration of an added mass of water. Lighthill's elongated-body theory, based on potential flow, provides a framework for calculating this reactive force. By leveraging the high aspect ratio of most fish, the theory simplifies the problem into a series of independent two-dimensional slices of fluids along the fish's body, which exchange momentum with the body and neighbouring slices. Using momentum conservation arguments, Lighthill's theory predicts the total thrust generated by an undulating fish, based solely on the dimensions and kinematics of its caudal fin. However, the assumption of independent slices has led to the common misconception that the flow produced lacks a longitudinal component. In this paper, we revisit Lighthill's theory, offering a modern reinterpretation using essential singularities of potential flows. We then extend it to predict the full three-dimensional flow field induced by the fish's body motion. Our results compare favourably with numerical simulations of realistic fish geometries.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_20162
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Flow associated with Lighthill's elongated-body theory
Eloy, Christophe
Michelin, Sébastien
Fluid Dynamics
Biological Physics
The hydrodynamic forces acting on an undulating swimming fish consist of two components: a drag-based resistive force and a reactive force originating from the necessary acceleration of an added mass of water. Lighthill's elongated-body theory, based on potential flow, provides a framework for calculating this reactive force. By leveraging the high aspect ratio of most fish, the theory simplifies the problem into a series of independent two-dimensional slices of fluids along the fish's body, which exchange momentum with the body and neighbouring slices. Using momentum conservation arguments, Lighthill's theory predicts the total thrust generated by an undulating fish, based solely on the dimensions and kinematics of its caudal fin. However, the assumption of independent slices has led to the common misconception that the flow produced lacks a longitudinal component. In this paper, we revisit Lighthill's theory, offering a modern reinterpretation using essential singularities of potential flows. We then extend it to predict the full three-dimensional flow field induced by the fish's body motion. Our results compare favourably with numerical simulations of realistic fish geometries.
title Flow associated with Lighthill's elongated-body theory
topic Fluid Dynamics
Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.20162