Abstract
This paper shows a numerical analysis of vibration plate type propulsion mechanisms that mimic aquatic organisms which promote under water using waving motion of flexible fins. In recent years, various studies of the aquatic propulsion mechanism using vibration plate which inspired from the aquatic organisms have been advancing. However, the propulsive efficiency of this mechanism is inferior to conventional screw propeller propulsion mechanism. Finding out optimal designs and vibrating conditions of the elastic plate is the one of the solution to improve the propulsion efficiency. And numerical analysis is effective to evaluate various designs and conditions. In this paper, we tried to apply the smoothed particle hydrodynamics, SPH to analyze the aquatic propulsion mechanisms.
