Open AccessA study on the hydrodynamic performance of manta ray biomimetic glider under unconstrained six-DOF motion
Author(s) -
Wen-Hao Cai,
Zuanming Jin,
Ying-ying Luo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0241677
Subject(s) - glider , wing , underwater glider , offset (computer science) , computational fluid dynamics , computer simulation , simulation , computer science , hydrostatic equilibrium , motion (physics) , mechanics , aerospace engineering , marine engineering , physics , engineering , algorithm , computer vision , quantum mechanics , programming language
A manta ray biomimetic glider is designed and studied with both laboratory experiments and numerical simulations with a new dynamic update method called the motion-based zonal mesh update method (MBZMU method) to reveal its hydrodynamic performance. Regarding the experimental study, an ejection gliding experiment is conducted for qualitative verification, and a hydrostatic free-fall experiment is conducted to quantitatively verify the reliability of the corresponding numerical simulation. Regarding the numerical simulation, to reduce the trend of nose-up movement and to obtain a long lasting and stable gliding motion, a series of cases with the center of mass offset forward by different distances and different initial angles of attack have been calculated. The results show that the glider will show the optimal gliding performance when the center of mass is 20mm in front of the center of geometry and the initial attack angle range lies between A 0 = -5° to A 0 = -2.5° at the same time. The optimal gliding distance can reach six times its body length under these circumstances. Furthermore, the stability of the glider is explained from the perspective of Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) configuration.