Biomimetic Design and Hydrodynamic Analysis of Oarfish-inspired Hydrofoils
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Oarfish – Genus Regalecus, has long been a source of curiosity for many researchers. This deep-sea habitat fish is not only one of the world's most enormous serpents but is also unique regarding its anguilliform swimming characteristics and the variety of tubercles it poses. This research was focused on developing oarfish-inspired hydrofoils to analyze their tubercles' effect on the oarfish's lift, drag, stall characteristics, and flow separation behaviors. The hydrodynamic analysis of these hydrofoils affirmed that the bio-inspired hydrofoils outperform the traditional existing hydrofoils, particularly the HQ 0/10. Motivated by this analysis, multiple engineered hydrofoils were fabricated by redesigning conventional hydrofoils with different numbers of tubercle rows and varying size configurations, with the tubercles concentrated mainly on the leading-edge region. These engineered hydrofoils were analyzed to determine an optimal design that could replace the existing traditional hydrofoils and exhibit enhanced hydrodynamic characteristics. The hydrodynamic analysis of these new hydrofoils revealed that the foil with five rows of tubercles at the leading edge had an ideal combination of increased lift and reduced drag. This thesis presents notable findings in bioinspired hydrodynamics and has established a base for further optimization of tubercled hydrofoils.