Numerical simulation and experimental research of a flexible caudal fin by piezoelectric fiber composite

Abstract

A flexible caudal fin made of the macro fiber composites and the carbon fiber orthotropic composite was investigated by the numerical simulations and the experiments. First, a three-dimensional numerical simulation procedure was adopted to research the torsion propulsion mode of the caudal fin and the impact of the water for the structural torsion frequency of the caudal fin. Then, a two-dimensional unsteady fluid computational method was used to analyze the hydrodynamic performance with the periodic swing of the caudal fin on the torsion mode. Based on the simulation results, the flow field was demonstrated and discussed. The interaction between the caudal fin and the water was explained. Finally, the laser vibrometer system was built to verify the torsion propulsion mode. Meanwhile, the application of the caudal fin was realized on the torsion propulsion, and the measured system was established to demonstrate the performance of the caudal fin. The established simulation procedures and experimental methods in this study may provide guidance to the fins made of the composite materials during the structural design and the investigation of the flow field characteristics with the movement of the fins.

Dynamic properties of an axially moving sandwich beam with magnetorheological fluid core

“…Each function f i (x) is used as the weighting function for the residual to equation (15), and the following orthogonal property is used…”

“…Despite the many advantages of these devices, the associated noises and vibrations have impeded their applications. In order to control these noises and vibrations, some smart materials such as electrorheological (ER), [1][2][3][4][5] magnetorheological fluids (MRFs)/elastomers, [6][7][8][9][10] shape memory alloy (SMA), [11][12][13][14] piezoelectric patches (PEP), 15,16 and shear thickening fluid (STF) [17][18][19] have been applied in these structures. However, there have been very few dynamic analyses of axially moving structures that have incorporated smart materials.…”

Motion planning of a fish-like piezoelectric actuated robot using model-based predictive control

“…According to the authors, this kind of actuation offers actuation force and velocity response in a simple design structure. A flexible caudal fin made of the macro fiber composites and the carbon fiber orthotropic composite was investigated by Guan et al (2015). Besides, Guan et al (2015) and Li et al (2019b) also investigate BCF based locomotion using MFCs by evaluating a multi-physical three-dimensional finite element model.…”

“…A flexible caudal fin made of the macro fiber composites and the carbon fiber orthotropic composite was investigated by Guan et al (2015). Besides, Guan et al (2015) and Li et al (2019b) also investigate BCF based locomotion using MFCs by evaluating a multi-physical three-dimensional finite element model. Tan et al (2018) investigate material and geometric nonlinearities presented in bioinspired locomotion using MFCs.…”

Computer-aided design–computer-aided engineering associative feature-based heterogeneous object modeling

“…Heterogeneous object (HO) modeling has become an important research area in recent years because of the extensive use of composite materials. 1,2 Generally, the material composition distribution (MCD) determines the physical performance of the HO, and it can be divided into two categories: the continuously varying MCD and the irregular MCD. For the former, the continuous variations are normally represented by certain analytical functions, which make the modeling scheme relatively simple.…”