Hydroelastic responses of plates with sinusoidal tubercles under perpendicularly loaded flow

Abstract

Blades furnished at their leading-edge with the whale's flipper-inspired sinusoidal tubercles have been observed to offer beneficial flow responses in the post-stall regime. Little is known, however, about their hydroelastic behaviors, especially if positioned perpendicular to the flow direction. Therefore, this work examines numerically the hydroelastic responses of bio-inspired plates with tubercles in the presence of flow perpendicular to their planar surface. Geometrical perturbations in tubercles wavelengths, λ = 50 mm, 100 mm, 150 mm, and amplitudes, A = 5 mm, 10 mm, 15 mm are considered. Compared to flat plates as the control case, the bio-inspired plates with tubercles exhibit higher stress and deformation, in an increasing fashion with A. While experiencing the least displacement, the bio-inspired plate with the shortest wavelength suffers the highest stress. Also, restricting to the tubercles region, the peaks of tubercles have been identified as the critical part that develops the greatest stress. Nonetheless, stresses and displacements experienced by the bio-inspired plates remain below the failure values. For analysis and design conveniences, a set of general equations have been parametrically produced to represent the inclusivity of the tubercles' geometrical effects for the hydroelastic responses of the bio-inspired plates.