Numerical Investigation and Optimization of a Flexible Flapping Airfoil

Motivated by novel biomimetic technology inspired by the oscillating nature of fish locomotion, we present a computational framework for simulating the combined pitching and heaving of a two-dimensional airfoil with chordwise flexibility. A strongly coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) solver is developed using the existing FSI framework in the open-source toolbox OpenFOAM. With this model, we investigate the effects of varying a matrix of parameters on the thrust, lift and drag behavior of the flexible foil. The flexible material properties, as well as motion parameters, including heave/pitch amplitude, oscillating frequency, and degree of phase shift, have all been shown to significantly impact the lift and thrust characteristics of a chosen configuration. Finally, configurations are proposed which optimize thrust and efficiency within a range of realistic parameters.