Self-propulsion of flapping bodies in viscous fluids: Recent advances and perspectives

• Published in: Acta mechanica Sinica Vol. 32; no. 6; pp. 980 - 990
• Main Authors: Wang, Shizhao, He, Guowei, Zhang, Xing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing The Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 01.12.2016; Springer Nature B.V; The State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics LNM, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
• Edition: English ed.
• Subjects: Biomimetics; breaking; Classical and Continuum Physics; Computational fluid dynamics; Computational Intelligence; Design engineering; Engineering; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Flapping; flexibility; Flow-mediated; Fluids; interaction; Mathematical models; Mechanical systems; motion; Passive; Review Paper; Self-propulsion; Symmetry; Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; Viscous fluids; Flapping motion; Flow-mediated interaction; Self-propulsion; Passive flexibility; Symmetry breaking
• ISSN: 0567-7718; 1614-3116
• DOI: 10.1007/s10409-016-0578-y

Flapping-powered propulsion is used by many animals to locomote through air or water. Here we review recent experimental and numerical studies on self-propelled mechanical systems powered by a flapping motion. Thesestudies improve our understanding of the mutual interaction between actively flapping bodies and surrounding fluids. The results obtained in these works provide not only new insights into biolocomotion but also useful information for the biomimetic design of artificial flyers and swimmers.