Recent Progress of Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Animal and Human Swimming for Computer Animation

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A literature review is conducted on the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling of swimming. The scope is animated films and games, sports science, animal biological research, bio-inspired submersible vehicle design and robotic design. There are CFD swimming studies on animals (eel, clownfish, turtle, manta, frog, whale, dolphin, shark, trout, sunfish, boxfish, octopus, squid, jellyfish, lamprey) and humans (crawl, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, dolphin kick, glide). A benefit is the ability to visualize the physics-based effects of a swimmer’s motion, using key-frame or motion capture animation. Physics-based animation can also be used as a training tool for sports scientists in swimming, water polo and diving. Surface swimming is complex and considers the water surface shape, splashes, bubbles, foam, bubble coalescence, vortex shedding, solid-fluid coupling and body deformation. Only the Navier-Stokes fluid flow equations can capture these features. Two-way solid-fluid coupling between the swimmer and the water is modeled to be able to propel the swimmer forwards in the water. Swimmers are often modeled using articulated rigid bodies, thus avoiding the complexity of deformable body modeling. There is interesting potential research, including the effects of hydrodynamic flow conditions on a swimmer, and the use of motion capture data. The predominant approach for swimming uses grid-based fluid methods for better accuracy. Emerging particle and hybrid-based fluid methods are being increasingly used in swimming for better 3D fluid visualization of the motion of the water surface, droplets, bubbles and foam.