Computation of the unsteady flow past a tuna with caudal fin oscillation

Abstract

Only recently has a capability for computing three-dimensional, unsteady incompressible flow over a changing geometry become available. In that work, the flow field generated during a torpedo launch from a submarine was computed. This paper describes the extension of that work to carry out a direct computation, making no geometric simplifications, of the unsteady flow past a tuna, including the oscillatory caudal fin motion. In particular, described is the computation of the time variation of the pressure distribution over the entire body and the integration over all surfaces to obtain the unsteady thrust.

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