Numerical Study of Batoid with Asymmetrically Undulating Pectoral Fins

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study of three dimensional flows around a self-propelled batoid with asymmetrically undulating pectoral fins. During the dynamic simulation, the difference of phase angle of the asymmetric motion is set to 180° between left pectoral fin and right pectoral fin. To evaluate the swimming performance of batoid with asymmetric undulating fins, kinematic and dynamic parameters have been used comparing with that of batoid with symmetric undulating fins. The simulation results show that asymmetric motion can achieve better starting and accelerating performance than symmetric motion.