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Fluid–solid Floquet stability analysis of self-propelled heaving foils

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2021

Luis Benetti Ramos*
Affiliation:
ONERA – The French Aerospace Lab, F-92190 Meudon, France
Olivier Marquet
Affiliation:
ONERA – The French Aerospace Lab, F-92190 Meudon, France
Michel Bergmann
Affiliation:
Université de Bordeaux, IMB, UMR 5251, F-33400 Talence, FranceEquipe-projet Memphis, Inria Bordeaux-Sud Ouest, F-33400 Talence, France
Angelo Iollo
Affiliation:
Université de Bordeaux, IMB, UMR 5251, F-33400 Talence, FranceEquipe-projet Memphis, Inria Bordeaux-Sud Ouest, F-33400 Talence, France
*
†Email address for correspondence: luisbenettiramos@gmail.com

Abstract

We investigate the role of linear mechanisms in the emergence of nonlinear horizontal self-propelled states of a heaving foil in a quiescent fluid. Two states are analysed: a periodic state of unidirectional motion and a quasi-periodic state of slow back and forth motion around a mean horizontal position. The states emergence is explained through a fluid–solid Floquet stability analysis of the non-propulsive symmetric base solution. Unlike a purely hydrodynamic analysis, our analysis accurately determines the locomotion states onset. An unstable synchronous mode is found when the unidirectional propulsive solution is observed. The obtained mode has a propulsive character, featuring a mean horizontal velocity and an asymmetric flow that generates a horizontal force accelerating the foil. An unstable asynchronous mode, also featuring flow asymmetry and a non-zero velocity, is found when the back and forth state is observed. Its associated complex multiplier introduces a slow modulation of the flapping period, agreeing with the quasi-periodic nature of the back and forth regime. The temporal evolution of this perturbation shows how the horizontal force exerted by the flow is alternatively propulsive or resistive over a slow period. For both modes, an analysis of the velocity and force perturbation time-averaged over the flapping period is used to establish physical instability criteria. The behaviour for a large solid-to-fluid density ratio of the modes is thus analysed. The asynchronous fluid–solid mode converges towards the purely hydrodynamic one, whereas the synchronous mode becomes marginally unstable in our analysis not converging to the purely hydrodynamic analysis where it is never destabilised.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1.Sketch of the foil configuration under sinusoidal vertical motion and horizontal translation with velocity $\boldsymbol {u}_g$. The foil chord (trailing to leading edge) and its thickness, the frames of reference and the solid/fluid interface $\varGamma _w$ are indicated.

Figure 1

Figure 2.Computational domain and mesh. (a) Full and (b) close-up views of a typical mesh adapted to the flow solution.

Figure 2

Figure 3.Symmetric solution for $\beta =2$. The vorticity field is depicted in the laboratory frame of reference $(X,Y)$ (a–d) and in the non-inertial frame of reference $(x,y)$ (e–h) for four equally spaced instants of the unitary period. The initial time $t_0$ corresponds to the lowest vertical position of the foil. Time instants: (a) $t_0$; (b) $t_0+1/4$; (c) $t_0+1/2$; (d) $t_0+3/4$; (e) $t_0$; (f) $t_0+1/4$; (g) $t_0+1/2$; (h) $t_0+3/4$.

Figure 3

Figure 4.Unidirectional propulsive solution for $\beta =6$. (a–d) Vorticity flow field along a flapping period. Time evolution of the horizontal velocity $u_g$ (initially equal to zero) (e) over the whole simulated time and (f) restricted to time window indicated by the rectangle in (e). The instant $t_0$ is depicted with a vertical line in (e,f). The period of the horizontal velocity is $0.5$, half the vertical flapping period $1$. Time instants: (a) $t_0=324$; (b) $t_0+1/4$; (c) $t_0+1/2$; (d) $t_0+3/4$.

Figure 4

Figure 5.Frequency spectra of the horizontal foil speed for (a) the periodic unidirectional propulsive solution ($\beta =6$) and (b) the quasi-periodic back and forth propulsive solution ($\beta =13$). The fundamental frequency of the horizontal speed (vertical black lines) is twice the vertical flapping frequency. The low frequency of the quasi-periodic solution (figure 6e) is identified by the blue line.

Figure 5

Figure 6.Back and forth solution for $\beta =13$. (a–d) and (g–j) Vorticity contours for a flapping period – starting from different time instants in (a,g). (e,f) Horizontal speed $u_g$ time evolution with dotted rectangle close-up in (f). Instants (a,g) are indicated by filled green and blue dots in (e). Long and small periods of $u_g(t)$ are respectively indicated in (e,f). Time instants: (a) $t_0=178$; (b) $t_0+1/4$; (c) $t_0+1/2$; (d) $t_0+3/4$; (g) $t_1=266$; (h) $t_1+1/4$; (i) $t_1+1/2$; (j) $t_1+3/4$.

Figure 6

Figure 7.Back and forth solution for $\beta =13$. (a–d) Vorticity contours of the time instants represented in figure 6(e) by filled red dots. An orange arrow indicates the horizontal velocity of these time instants. These time instants are equally spaced of three flapping periods.

Figure 7

Figure 8.Non-propulsive (white), unidirectional propulsive (red) and back and forth (grey) regimes as a function of the Stokes number $\beta$. (a,c) Time-averaged (circles) and oscillation amplitude (error bars) of the foil horizontal velocity. (b,d) Forcing frequency of the foil vertical velocity (open circles) and frequency of the horizontal foil velocity (filled circles). Panel (c) is a close-up view of (a) highlighting the transition between unidirectional propulsive, non-propulsive and back and forth solutions. Panel (d) is a close-up view of (b) showing the evolution of the low frequency in the back and forth solution as a function of the Stokes number. Parameters: $A = 0.5$ and $\rho = 100$.

Figure 8

Figure 9.Self-propelled regimes for a density ratio $\rho = 1$. Background colours are the same as the previous figure. (a) Evolution of the time-averaged (circles) and amplitude (error bars) of the foil horizontal velocity with the Stokes number. (b) Close-up view highlighting the transition between the self-propelled regimes. Other control parameters: $A = 0.5$ and $h = 0.05$.

Figure 9

Figure 10.Non-propulsive solution obtained for $A=0.5$ and $\beta =13$. The instantaneous vorticity field is depicted at four instants of the (unitary) flapping period. Time instants: (a) $t_0$; (b) $t_0+1/4$; (c) $t_0+1/2$; (d) $t_0+3/4$.

Figure 10

Figure 11.Fluid–solid Floquet analysis for $\rho =100$. (a) Absolute value and (b) frequency of the dominant Floquet multiplier (black circles) as a function of the Stokes number $\beta$. The latin numbers indicate regimes of nonlinear solution identified in § 2, the red region corresponding to unidirectional self-propelled solutions, while the grey regions correspond to back and forth self-propelled solutions. In (b) the open circles indicate the low frequencies characteristic of the back and forth solutions.

Figure 11

Table 1.Critical thresholds obtained with the unsteady nonlinear simulations and the stability analyses. Here ‘$\times$’ indicates that no unstable modes were obtained.

Figure 12

Figure 12.Hydrodynamic Floquet analysis. Same legend as in previous figure.

Figure 13

Figure 13.Unstable synchronous Floquet mode for $\beta =6$. (a–d) Vorticity contours for a flapping period (base flow positive (respectively negative) values represented by solid (respectively dashed) lines). (e) Foil horizontal speed and (f) force. Time-averaged value along a flapping period of both values is represented by a dashed line in (e,f). In (e) the vertical speed $v_g$ of the base flow (light blue dashed line) is represented in the right axis. Time instants: (a) $t=0$; (b) $t=1/4$; (c) $t=1/2$; (d) $t=3/4$.

Figure 14

Figure 14.Time-averaged horizontal (a) velocity and (b) force for the synchronous Floquet mode as a function of $\beta$. (c) Real part of the Floquet exponent. In (a) the mean horizontal speed obtained with nonlinear simulations is represented with empty grey circles for comparison.

Figure 15

Figure 15.Unstable asynchronous Floquet mode for $\beta =13$. Vorticity contours of the (a–d) real and (e–h) imaginary parts of the mode at four instants of the flapping period. Positive and negative values of the base flow vorticity are depicted with solid and dashed contours. (i,j) Real and imaginary parts of the horizontal velocity $\hat {u}_{g}$. (k,l) Real and imaginary parts of the horizontal force $\hat {F}_{x}$. In (i–l) dashed lines represents the time-averaged value of the plotted quantity. Time instants: (a) $t=0$; (b) $t=1/4$; (c) $t=1/2$; (d) $t=3/4$; (e) $t=0$; (f) $t=1/4$; (g) $t=1/2$; (h) $t=3/4$.

Figure 16

Figure 16.Temporal evolution of the quasi-periodic perturbation $\boldsymbol {\tilde {q}}$ for $\beta =13$. (a–d) Vorticity of the perturbation (colours) and base flow (black lines) at four instants $t_{\epsilon }$ of the slow period $T_{\epsilon }=1/f'=33$. (e–g) Time evolution of the horizontal (e) velocity, (f) force and (g) position of the foil over the slow period, shown as a function of both time $t$ and $t_{\epsilon }$. The horizontal dashed lines are for the time-averaged value of the plotted quantity over the slow time period. In (f) the thick curve depicts the time-averaged value of the horizontal force over the flapping period. The vertical solid lines in (f,g) indicate the instants where the foil pass by its mean horizontal position. Time instants: (a) $t_{\epsilon }=0$; (b) $t_{\epsilon }=0.25$; (c) $t_{\epsilon }=0.5$; (d) $t_{\epsilon }=0.75$.

Figure 17

Figure 17.(a) Amplitude ratio and (b) phase difference of the (time-averaged) horizontal force and foil velocity of the asynchronous modes as a function of the Stokes number. The instability region is marked in grey. The dashed line corresponds to $\psi ={\rm \pi} /2$. (c,d) Temporal evolution of the quasi-periodic foil velocity $\langle \tilde {u}_g\rangle$ (solid curve) and force $\langle \tilde {F}_x \rangle$ (dashed curve) time-averaged along a flapping period for (c) a stable ($\beta =10.5$) and (d) an unstable ($\beta =13$) asynchronous mode, shown in (a,b) with black dots. The green area corresponds to propulsive phases (velocity and force have the same sign) while the white area corresponds to resistive phases (velocity and force are of opposite sign).

Figure 18

Figure 18.Effect of the fluid–solid density ratio $\rho$ on (a,b) the Floquet exponent and (c,d) the perturbation of the foil horizontal speed for (a,c) the synchronous mode ($\beta =6$) and (b,d) the asynchronous mode ($\beta =12$). In (b,d) the real and imaginary parts of the Floquet exponent and the horizontal speed are respectively represented by solid and dash–dot lines. The solid curves correspond to results of the fluid–solid analysis. The red dashed curve corresponds to the asymptotic limits of the exponent: (a) $1/\rho$ curve and (b) the values of the purely hydrodynamic analysis $\mathrm {Re}(\lambda )=-0.01$ and $\mathrm {Im}(\lambda )=0.0043$. The dashed horizontal lines delimit in (a,b) $\mathrm {Re}(\lambda )=0$ and in (b) $\langle u_g\rangle =0$.

Figure 19

Figure 19.(a) Asymptotic limit ($1 \leq \rho \leq 10^9$) and (b) close-up on low density ratios ($1 \leq \rho \leq 100$) of the instability regimes of the symmetric non-propulsive periodic solution identified with the fluid–solid Floquet analysis in the parameters plane ($\beta ,\rho$). White regions correspond to stable solutions, while red and grey regions indicate unstable solutions to synchronous and asynchronous Floquet modes, respectively. Results of the purely hydrodynamic stability analysis are displayed at the top of (a) for comparison.

Figure 20

Table 2.Critical thresholds obtained with the unsteady nonlinear simulations and the fluid–solid stability analysis for $\rho =1$.

Figure 21

Table 3.Convergence of the maximal vertical force $\max (F_y)$ and the time-averaged horizontal velocity $\langle u_g\rangle$ with a time step and a mesh number of triangles for a unidirectional propulsive solution ($\beta =6$). For the time-step convergence, a fixed mesh of $17116$ triangles was adopted, whereas for the mesh convergence, a fixed time step $\Delta t = 0.005$ was used.

Figure 22

Figure 20.Validation of the nonlinear solver. Time-averaged horizontal velocity of the foil as a function of the Stokes number $\beta$. Results of the numerical algorithm described in appendix A (filled dots) are compared with results (empty squares) extracted from figure 13 (clamped case) in Spagnolie et al. (2010).

Figure 23

Table 4.Linear solver validation: comparison of the leading Floquet multiplier $|\mu |$ with the values presented in table 3 of Elston et al. (2006).

Figure 24

Figure 21.Evolution of the (a) time-averaged horizontal velocity and (b) leading Floquet multiplier absolute value of an elliptical foil of minor/major axis aspect ratio $h=0.1$ with control parameters $A=0.5$ and $\rho =32$. In (a) – respectively (b) – white, red and grey background colours identify symmetric non-propulsive, unidirectional propulsive and back and forth regimes – respectively stable, synchronous unstable and asynchronous unstable multipliers.