Gabriel Weymouth

Boundary data immersion method for Cartesian-grid simulations of fluid-body interaction problems

A new robust and accurate Cartesian-grid treatment for the immersion of solid bodies within a fluid with general boundary conditions is described. The new approach, the Boundary Data Immersion Method (BDIM), is derived based on a general integration kernel formulation which allows the field equations of each domain and the interfacial conditions to be combined analytically. The resulting governing equation for the complete domain preserves the behavior of the original system in an efficient Cartesian-grid method, including stable and accurate pressure values on the solid boundary. The kernel formulation allows a detailed analysis of the method, and it is demonstrated that BDIM is consistent, obtains second-order convergence relative to the kernel width, and is robust with respect to the grid and boundary alignment. Formulation for no-slip and free slip boundary conditions are derived and numerical results are obtained for the flow past a cylinder and the impact of blunt bodies through a free surface. The BDIM predictions are compared to analytic, experimental and previous numerical results confirming the properties, efficiency and efficacy of this new boundary treatment for Cartesian grid methods.

Conservative Volume-of-Fluid method for free-surface simulations on Cartesian-grids

This paper contributes to the state of the art in Cartesian-grid methods through development of new advection and reconstruction Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) algorithms which are applicable to two and three-dimensional flows. A computationally efficient and second-order VOF reconstruction method is presented which uses no inversions to determine the interface normal direction. Next, the lack of conservation of fluid volume in previous VOF advection methods are shown to be due to improper treatment of one-dimensional stretching in the velocity field. This paper uses simple explicit time stepping and a cell-center estimate of the volume fraction in the dilatation term to achieve a completely conservative advection method. The new methods are simple, robust and shown to out perform existing approaches for canonical test problems relevant to breaking wave flows.

Hydrodynamic object recognition using pressure sensing

Hydrodynamic sensing is instrumental to fish and some amphibians. It also represents, for underwater vehicles, an alternative way of sensing the fluid environment when visual and acoustic sensing are limited. To assess the effectiveness of hydrodynamic sensing and gain insight into its capabilities and limitations, we investigated the forward and inverse problem of detection and identification, using the hydrodynamic pressure in the neighbourhood, of a stationary obstacle described using a general shape representation. Based on conformal mapping and a general normalization procedure, our obstacle representation accounts for all specific features of progressive perceptual hydrodynamic imaging reported experimentally. Size, location and shape are encoded separately. The shape representation rests upon an asymptotic series which embodies the progressive character of hydrodynamic imaging through pressure sensing. A dynamic filtering method is used to invert noisy nonlinear pressure signals for the shape parameters. The results highlight the dependence of the sensitivity of hydrodynamic sensing not only on the relative distance to the disturbance but also its bearing.

Ultra-fast escape maneuver of an octopus-inspired robot

We design and test an octopus-inspired flexible hull robot that demonstrates outstanding fast-starting performance. The robot is hyper-inflated with water, and then rapidly deflates to expel the fluid so as to power the escape maneuver. Using this robot we verify for the first time in laboratory testing that rapid size-change can substantially reduce separation in bluff bodies traveling several body lengths, and recover fluid energy which can be employed to improve the propulsive performance. The robot is found to experience speeds over ten body lengths per second, exceeding that of a similarly propelled optimally streamlined rigid rocket. The peak net thrust force on the robot is more than 2.6 times that on an optimal rigid body performing the same maneuver, experimentally demonstrating large energy recovery and enabling acceleration greater than 14 body lengths per second squared. Finally, over 53% of the available energy is converted into payload kinetic energy, a performance that exceeds the estimated energy conversion efficiency of fast-starting fish. The Reynolds number based on final speed and robot length is [Formula: see text]. We use the experimental data to establish a fundamental deflation scaling parameter [Formula: see text] which characterizes the mechanisms of flow control via shape change. Based on this scaling parameter, we find that the fast-starting performance improves with increasing size.

Physics-Based Learning Models for Ship Hydrodynamics.

We present the concepts of physics-based learning models (PBLM) and their relevance and application to the field of ship hydrodynamics. The utility of physics-based learning is motivated by contrasting generic learning models for regression predictions, which do not presume any knowledge of the system other than the training data provided with methods such as semi-empirical models, which incorporate physical insights along with data-fitting. PBLM provides a framework wherein intermediate models, which capture (some) physical aspects of the problem, are incorporated into modern generic learning tools to substantially improve the predictions of the latter, minimizing the reliance on costly experimental measurements or high-resolution highfidelity numerical solutions. To illustrate the versatility and efficacy of PBLM, we present three wave-ship interaction problems: 1) at speed waterline profiles; 2) ship motions in head seas; and 3) three-dimensional breaking bow waves. PBLM is shown to be robust and produce error rates at or below the uncertainty in the generated data at a small fraction of the expense of high-resolution numerical predictions

The boundary data immersion method for compressible flows with application to aeroacoustics

This paper introduces a virtual boundary method for compressible viscous fluid flow that is capable of accurately representing moving bodies in flow and aeroacoustic simulations. The method is the compressible extension of the boundary data immersion method (BDIM, Maertens & Weymouth (2015), [18]). The BDIM equations for the compressible NavierStokes equations are derived and the accuracy of the method for the hydrodynamic representation of solid bodies is demonstrated with challenging test cases, including a fully turbulent boundary layer flow and a supersonic instability wave. In addition we show that the compressible BDIM is able to accurately represent noise radiation from moving bodies and flow induced noise generation without any penalty in allowable time step.

Drag cancellation by added-mass pumping

A submerged body subject to a sudden shape-change experiences large forces due to the variation of added-mass energy. While this phenomenon has been studied for single actuation events, application to sustained propulsion requires studying \textit{periodic} shape-change. We do so in this work by investigating a spring-mass oscillator submerged in quiescent fluid subject to periodic changes in its volume. We develop an analytical model to investigate the relationship between added-mass variation and viscous damping and demonstrate its range of application with fully coupled fluid-solid Navier-Stokes simulations at large Stokes number. Our results demonstrate that the recovery of added-mass kinetic energy can be used to completely cancel the viscous damping of the fluid, driving the onset of sustained oscillations with amplitudes as large as four times the average body radius

The four-flipper swimming method of plesiosaurs enabled efficient and effective locomotion

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A coastal distributed autonomous sensor network

. A quasi-linear relationship is found to link the terminal amplitude of the oscillations

Underwater soft robotics, the benefit of body-shape variations in aquatic propulsion

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