The interest toward Mars exploration has been considerably increasing due to also the successful deployment of the Perseverance rover and the continuous tests developed by SpaceX's launch vehicle, Starship. While the Mars 2020 mission is currently in progress, the first controlled flight on another planet have been proven in April 2021 with the vertical take-off and landing of the Ingenuity rotorcraft on Mars. In addition, the rotorcraft Dragonfly is expected to achieve the same endeavor in Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, by 2036. Continuous efforts have been oriented toward the development of new technologies and aircraft configurations to improve the performance of current proposed designs to achieve powered flight in different planetary bodies. This thesis work is a preliminary study to develop a comprehensive analysis over the generation of optimum airfoil geometries to achieve vertical flight in environments where low Reynolds numbers and Mach number equal to 0.2 and 0.5.

Low Reynolds number airfoil analysis has become increasingly significant as urban air mobility vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles surge in popularity. The Green Raven project at KTH Aero aims to use reflex airfoils where little data is available beyond classical analysis. Viscous formulations of the panel method and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have been used to simulate lift, drag and moments for the MH61 and MH104 airfoils at different angles of attack (AOAs). XFOIL and CFD turbulence models such as Spalart-Allmaras (SA), k-w Shear Stress Transport (SST) with and without damping coefficients were used. The strengths and limitations of each model were used to justify results. Due to clear computational advantages, XFOIL produced adequate results and is tailored toward use in initial design stages where repeated measurements are crucial. The SA turbulence stood out as the model produced accurate results in a reasonable time. The abundance of published CFD material comparing different turbulence models increased the credibility of the results. The two airfoils had similar lift and drag characteristics at AOAs of 0-6 deg while the MH104 was superior near stall. However, due to the lack of experimental data of the airfoils no particular model could be commended or verified.

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<p>In this thesis, we unveiled the impact of fluid stratification and viscoelasticity on the transport of microorganisms and microparticles. The thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the transport of the swimming sheet in density and viscosity stratified fluids. Chapter 4 is devoted to analyze the motion of anisotropic particles in density stratified fluids. Chapter 5 focuses on the effect of viscoelasticity on the motion of a suspension of spherical particles.</p>

The impressive kinematic capabilities and structural adaptations presented by bio-locomotion continue to inspire some of the advancements in today's small-scaled flying and swimming vehicles. These vehicles operate in a low Reynolds number flow regime where viscous effects dominate flow interactions, which makes it challenging to generate lift and thrust. Overcoming these challenges means utilizing non-conventional lifting and flow control mechanisms generated by unsteady flapping body motion. Understanding and characterizing the aerodynamic phenomena associated with the unsteady motion is vital to predict the unsteady fluid loads generated, to implement control methodologies, and to assess the dynamic stability and control authority of airborne and underwater vehicles. This dissertation presents experimental results for forced oscillations on multi-element airfoils and hydrofoils for Reynolds numbers between Re=104 and Re=106. The document divides the work into four main sections: The first topic presents wind tunnel measurements of lift forces generated by an oscillating trailing edge flap on a NACA-0012 airfoil to illustrate the effects that frequency and pitching amplitude have on lift enhancement. The results suggest that this dynamic trailing edge flap enhances the mean lift by up to 20% in the stalled flow regime. Using frequency response approach, it is determined that the maximum enhancement in circulatory lift amplitude occurs at stalled angles of attack for lower pitching amplitudes. The second topic presents wind tunnel measurements for lift and drag generated by a sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal oscillations of a NACA-0012 airfoil. The results show that 'trapezoidal' pitching enhances the mean lift and the RMS lift by up to 50% and 35% in the pre-stall flow regime, respectively, whereas the 'reverse sawtooth' and sinusoidal pitching generate the most substantial increase of the lift-to-drag ratio in stall and post-stall flow regimes, respectively. The third topic involves a study on the role of fish-tail flexibility on thrust and propulsive efficiency. Flexible tails enhance thrust production in comparison to a rigid ones of the same size and under the same operating conditions. Further analysis indicates that varying the tail's aspect ratio has a more significant effect on propulsive efficiency and the thrust-to-power ratio at zero freestream flow. On the other hand, changing the material's property has the strongest impact on propulsive efficiency at non-zero freestream flow. The results also show that the maximum thrust peaks correspond to the maximum passive tail amplitudes only for the most flexible case. The final topic aims to assess the unsteady hydrodynamic forces and moments generated by a three-link swimming prototype performing different swimming gaits, swimming speeds, and oscillatory frequencies. We conclude that the active actuation of the tail's first mode bending produces the most significant thrust force in the presence of freestream flow. In contrast, the second mode bending kinematics provides the most significant thrust force in a zero-freestream flow. / Doctor of Philosophy / It is by no surprise that animal locomotion continues to inspire the design of flying and swimming vehicles. Although nature produces complex kinematics and highly unsteady flow characteristics, simplified approximations to model bio-inspired locomotion in fluid flows are experimentally achievable using low degrees of freedom motion, such as pitching airfoils and trailing edge flaps. The contributions of this dissertation are divided into four primary foci: (a) wind tunnel force measurements on a flapped NACA-0012 airfoil undergoing forced pitching, (b) wind tunnel measurements of aerodynamic forces generated by sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal pitching of a NACA-0012 airfoil, (c) towing tank measurements of thrust forces and torques generated by a one-link swimming prototype with varying tail flexibilities, and (d) towing tank measurements of hydrodynamic forces and moments generated by active tail actuation of a multi-link swimming prototype. From our wind tunnel measurements, we determine that lift enhancement by a trailing edge flap is achieved under certain flow regimes and oscillating conditions. Additionally, we assess the aerodynamic forces for a sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal pitching of an airfoil and show that 'trapezoidal' pitching produces the largest lift coefficient amplitude whereas the sinusoidal and 'reverse sawtooth' pitching achieve the best lift to drag ratios. From our towing tank experiments, we note that the role of tail flexibility enhances thrust generation on a swimming device. Finally, we conclude that different kinematics on an articulating body strongly affect the hydrodynamic forces and moments. The results of the towing tank measurements are accessible from an online public database to encourage research and contribution in underwater vehicle design through physics-based low-order models that can accommodate hydrodynamic principles and geometric control concepts.

Heat transfer augmentation is of paramount importance in energy transfer and storage systems and the idea of using the inherent vibrations in a system to enhance heat transfer needs to be thoroughly researched upon. The current study numerically investigates an infinitesimally thin plate-fin undergoing forced oscillations over a range of amplitudes and frequencies in the presence of an approach flow. Reduced frequencies of 0.25 ≤ k ≤16 and plunge amplitudes of 0.03125 ≤ h ≤ 8 are investigated at Re=100 and Pr = 0.71. It is shown that the combined effect of frequency and amplitude on heat transfer enhancement can be accounted for as a single parameter “plunge velocity” (0.25 ≤ kh ≤ 4) instead of the individual frequency and amplitude values. For kh > 0.5 a significant increase in Nusselt number ( is observed compared to a stationary plate. With increasing kh or more vigorous oscillations, the increase in becomes more prominent and similar trends and comparable magnitudes were observed for a constant value. Unlike the hydrodynamic counterpart of the study, both Leading Edge Vortices (LEVs) and Trailing Edge Vortices (TEVs) are found to act positively to induce enhanced heat transfer on the plate. Finally, the dependence of heat transfer augmentation on the frequency and amplitude of vibration is quantified with a simple parameterization for a plate-fin in a fluid medium. / M.S. / Heat transfer enhancement is of paramount importance in energy transfer and storage systems. The idea of using the inherent mechanical vibrations in a heat producing system to enhance transfer of unwanted heat from that system needs to be thoroughly researched upon. To investigate this idea, we numerically study an infinitesimally thin plate-fin undergoing forced oscillations over a range of amplitudes and frequencies in the presence of an incoming air flow. It is shown that the combined effect of frequency and amplitude on heat transfer enhancement can be accounted for as a single parameter called “plunge velocity” instead of the individual frequency and amplitude values. For a significant plunge velocity, a significant increase in Nusselt number ( is observed compared to a stationary plate representing an increase in the extent of heat transferred. With more vigorous oscillations, the increase in becomes more prominent and similar trends and comparable magnitudes were observed for a constant value. Finally, the dependence of heat transfer augmentation on the frequency and amplitude of vibration is quantified with a simple parameterization for a plate-fin in a fluid medium.

The history and trajectory of the human race is inseparable from our innate need to explore the unknown. As human exploration drives boundless new insights into the universe, characterization and accurate modeling methods are required to develop the next generation of exploratory vehicles to map and analyze foreign lands. As such the presented work looks to provide characterization and modeling approaches for unsteady aerodynamic phenomena in the extraterrestrial environments of Mars and Titan. Specifically, unsteady aerodynamic loads including dynamic stall are characterized using high-fidelity numerical experiments to better understand the effects of low Reynolds number and high Mach number flows on the process. Additionally, modeling of unsteady aerodynamic behavior at low Reynolds numbers similar to those observed when designing the Mars ingenuity rotorcraft are developed and extensively evaluated. Lastly, the characterization and multi-fidelity modeling of unsteady aerodynamic effects under Titan atmospheric conditions is conducted for a coaxial rotor system.

This thesis deals with the near-field of confluent jets, which can be of interest in many engineering applications such as design of a ventilation supply device. The physical effect of interaction between multiple closely spaced jets is studied using experimental and numerical methods. The primary aim of this study is to explore a better understanding of flow and turbulence behavior of multiple interacting jets. The main goal is to gain an insight into the confluence of jets occurring in the near-field of multiple interacting jets. The array of multiple interacting jets is studied when they are placed on a flat and a curved surface. To obtain the boundary conditions at the nozzle exits of the confluent jets on a curved surface, the results of numerical prediction of a cylindrical air supply device using two turbulence models (realizable 𝑘 − 𝜖 and Reynolds stress model) are validated with hot-wire anemometry (HWA) near different nozzles discharge in the array. A single round jet is then studied to find the appropriate turbulence models for the prediction of the three-dimensional flow field and to gain an understanding of the effect of the boundary conditions predicted at the nozzle inlet. In comparison with HWA measurements, the turbulence models with low Reynolds correction (𝑘 − 𝜖 and shear stress transport [SST] 𝑘 − 𝜔) give reasonable flow predictions for the single round jet with the prescribed inlet boundary conditions, while the transition models (𝑘 − 𝑘l − 𝜔𝜔 and transition SST 𝑘 − 𝜔) are unable to predict the flow in the turbulent region. The results of numerical prediction (low Reynolds SST 𝑘 − 𝜔 model) using the prescribed inlet boundary conditions agree well with the HWA measurement in the nearfield of confluent jets on a curved surface, except in the merging region. Instantaneous velocity measurements are performed by laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) in two different configurations, a single row of parallel coplanar jets and an inline array of jets on a flat surface. The results of LDA and PIV are compared, which exhibit good agreement except near the nozzle exits. The streamwise velocity profile of the jets in the initial region shows a saddle back shape with attenuated turbulence in the core region and two off-centered narrow peaks. When confluent jets issue from an array of closely spaced nozzles, they may converge, merge, and combine after a certain distance downstream of the nozzle edge. The deflection plays a salient role for the multiple interacting jets (except in the single row configuration), where all the jets are converged towards the center of the array. The jet position, such as central, side and corner jets, significantly influences the development features of the jets, such as velocity decay and lateral displacement. The flow field of confluent jets exhibits asymmetrical distributions of Reynolds stresses around the axis of the jets and highly anisotropic turbulence. The velocity decays slower in the combined regio  of confluent jets than a single jet. Using the response surface methodology, the correlations between characteristic points (merging and combined points) and the statistically significant terms of the three design factors (inlet velocity, spacing between the nozzles and diameter of the nozzles) are determined for the single row of coplanar parallel jets. The computational parametric study of the single row configuration shows that spacing has the greatest impact on the near-field characteristics.

Three different models, relating to the study of microswimmers immersed in a low Reynolds number fluid, are presented. The underlying, mathematical concepts employed in each are developed using singularity methods of Stokes flow. The first topic concerns the motility of an artificial, three-sphere microswimmer with prescribed, non-reciprocal, internal forces. The swimmer progresses through a low Reynolds number, nonlinear, viscoelastic medium. The model developed illustrates that the presence of the viscoelastic rheology, when compared to a Newtonian environment, increases both the net displacement and swimming efficiency of the microswimmer. The second area concerns biological microswimming, modelling a sperm cell with a hyperactive waveform (vigorous, asymmetric beating), bound to the epithelial walls of the female, reproductive tract. Using resistive-force theory, the model concludes that, for certain regions in parameter space, hyperactivated sperm cells can induce mechanical forces that pull the cell away from the wall binding. This appears to occur via the regulation of the beat amplitude, wavenumber and beat asymmetry. The next topic presents a novel generalisation of slender-body theory that is capable of calculating the approximate flow field around a long, thin, slender body with circular cross sections that vary arbitrarily in radius along a curvilinear centre-line. New, permissible, slender-body shapes include a tapered flagellum and those with ribbed, wave-like structures. Finally, the detailed analytics of the generalised, slender-body theory are exploited to develop a numerical implementation capable of simulating a wider range of slender-body geometries compared to previous studies in the field.