In the present work, we experimentally study thrust generation from sinusoidally pitched rigid and flexible foils immersed in a uniform flow. The flexible foils are made by attaching a flexible flap of known flexural rigidity and flap length to the trailing edge of a rigid foil. For such thrust generating systems, a propulsive efficiency (η) may be defined as the ratio of the useful work done to the input energy requirement. In the present experiments, the propulsive efficiency (η) of the flapping foil can be determined from direct measurement of the unsteady forces and torque on the foil. The effects of systematic variation of the flexural rigidity of the foil, from highly flexible to rigid, on the thrust and efficiency characteristics of the foil are investigated. Studying such oscillating foils helps one to understand and mimic the efficient thrust generating mechanism in fishes and other creatures that use flapping to locomote themselves. A strain guage based loadcell is used to measure the forces normal to the foil (N) and forces along the chord of the foil (A). With a potentiometer, the instantaneous angular position (θ) is also measured, so that instantaneous lift (L) and thrust (T ) can be calculated. The measured moment (M) is used to calculate the instantaneous power input (P = Mθ˙). The foil is immersed in a uniform flow (u) set in a water tunnel, and the sinusoidal pitching (θ = θmaxsinωt) is provided by a servo motor. The Reynolds number (Re = uc/ν) in the present study is in the range of 103 to 104 . For the case of the rigid foil, the thrust and efficiency characteristics are presented for variation of the non-dimensional flapping frequency called the ‘reduced frequency’ (k = πfc/u), which is varied in the range of 1 to 10. At small reduced frequency (k < 3), the foil experiences a mean drag, while at k > 3, the foil experiences a mean thrust that grows rapidly as the reduced frequency (k) is increased. The thrust characteristics of the rigid foil are decided mainly by the normal force’s phase with respect to θ (φCN ) and its magnitude ([CN ]), as the chord-wise force is very small compared to the normal force (A << N). The measurements show that the non-dimensional mean thrust coefficient (CT ) scales as k2 and non-dimensional mean power (CP ) scales as k3 for k Ҳ 4. The maximum efficiency for rigid foils is found to be 8 % and it occurs at k 6. For the flexible foil case, the effect of making a portion of the total foil flexible by means of attaching a flexible flap of known flexural rigidity (EI) and flap length (cF ) to a rigid foil of length (cR) is studied. Unlike the rigid foils, the chordwise force (A) becomes an important factor in determining the thrust and efficiency characteristics of the flexible foils, due to the bending of the flap. We present results for a broad range of flexural rigidities from highly flexible flaps to stiff flaps, with the extent of flexibility fixed at cF /cR =0.8. We find that there is an optimal flexural rigidity for which the efficiency (η) reaches a maximum of 28 %. This represents a 250 % improvement compared to the rigid foil. The flexible foils with stiff flaps show a strange behavior with all the mean thrust coming from chordwise forces (A), unlike other flexible foils where the contribution to mean thrust come from both normal and chordwise forces. The effect of varying the extent of flexibility (cF/cR) with fixed flexural rigidity has also been studied. We define a non-dimensional flexibility parameter, R∗ = EI/(0.5ρu2sc3F ), which can combine the effect of variations in EI and cF /cR. Using this non-dimensional flexibility parameter (R∗), we find out that mean thrust and efficiency data for both the EI and cF/cR variation study collapse onto a single curve, indicating that R∗ can indeed be a single parameter characterizing flexibility. The present work shows that flexible foils can improve efficiency over rigid foils. Efficiency improvements can come in two ways depending on the R∗ of the flexible foil. Flexible foils with R∗ in the range of 10−2 to 100 show nearly 250% improvement in efficiency, accompanied by nearly 70 % loss in thrust compared to an entirely rigid foil of the same total chord. Flexible foils with R∗ in the range of 100 to 101 show nearly 50 % improvement in efficiency accompanied by nearly 100% increase in thrust.

The diploma thesis is focused on preparation of thin and highly flexible ceramic tapes from zirconia with a thickness from 70 to 200 m. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part presents a literary research that focuses on the properties of zirconium dioxide, the preparation of thin ceramic foils and the evaluation of the mechanical properties of ceramic materials. The second part is experimental. It deals with the preparation of thin ceramic foils from colloidal ceramic suspensions produced by epoxy gel-tape casting method. The suspensions were prepared from zirconium dioxide stabilized by 2 and 3 mol.% of yttrium oxide. The maximum deflection and strength was determined on sintered foils. The maximum biaxial strength of 1806 MPa was achieved for 3Y-PC 75 foils with a thickness of 190 m. The maximum deflection of 10.5 mm at a ceramic foil thickness of 75 m was achieved in a 3-point bend with a support span of 30 mm on 3Y-PC 75 samples. At a support distance of 50 mm, the samples were pushed through the gap without damage. These results indicate excellent mechanical properties of the prepared ceramic foils.

In nature, many of the flapping wings and fins in swimming and flying animals have various degrees of flexibility with strong and coupled solid-fluid interactions between the structure and the fluid. In most cases, the wing structure, the flow and their interactions are complex. This thesis experimentally investigates a ‘simple’ fluid-flexible foil interaction problem: flow generated by a pitching foil with chordwise flexibility. To explore the effect of flexibility on the flow, we study the flow generated in quiescent water (the limiting case of infinite Strouhal number) by a sinusoidally pitching rigid symmetrical NACA0015 foil to which is attached a 0.05 mm thick chordwise flexible polythene flap at the trailing edge. The chordwise length of flap is 0.79 c, where c = 38 mm is the chord length of the rigid foil; span of the foil and flap is 100 mm. Detailed particle image velocimetry (PIV) and flow visualization measurements have been made for twelve cases, corresponding to three pitching amplitudes, ±10◦,± 15◦, ±20◦, and four frequencies, 1, 2, 3 and 4 Hz for each amplitude. For most of these cases, a narrow coherent jet aligned along the center-line, containing a reverse B’enard–K´arm´an vortex street, and a corresponding unidirectional thrust are generated. This thrust is similar to the upward force generated during hovering, but motion of our foil is much simpler than the complex wing kinematics found in birds and insects; also the thrust generation mechanism seems to be different. In our case, the thrust is from a coordinated pushing action of the rigid foil and the flexible flap. Control volume analysis reveals the unsteady nature of thrust generation. In this intricately coupled flow generation problem, chordwise flexibility is found to be crucial in producing the coherent jet. In this thesis, we explore in detail the physics of jet flow produced by the foil with a flexible flap, and identify the importance of flexibility in flow generation. Flap motion ensures appropriate spatial and temporal release of vortices, and also imparts them convective motion, to obtain the staggered pattern that produces the jet. To describe the fluid-flap interaction, we conveniently characterize the flap through a non-dimensional stiffness, ‘effective stiffness’ (EI)∗ of the flap, that captures the effects of both the flap properties as well as the external forcing. With the same flap by changing the pitching parameters, we cover a fairly large (EI)∗ range varying over nearly two orders of magnitude. However, we observed that only moderate (EI)∗ (~0.1 - 1) generates sustained narrow, orderly jet. We provide thrust estimates useful for the design of flapping foil thrusters/propulsors. Although this study has only indirect connections with the hovering in nature, it may be useful in understanding the role of flexibility of bird and insect wings during hovering. In contrast, a foil with a rigid trailing edge produces a weak jet whose inclination changes continually with time. This meandering is observed to be random and independent of the initial conditions over a wide range of pitching parameters.