Elastic swimmer on a free surface

Sophie Ramananarivo, Benjamin Thiria, Ramiro Godoy-Diana

Published 2013-10-07Version 1

We present in this fluid dynamics video a novel experimental setup with self-propelled swimmers on a free surface. The swimmers, modeled as flexible thin filaments, are subjected to external electromagnetic forcing driving a propagating elastic wave that gives rise to self- propulsion. The fluid-structure interaction problem of these passive anguilliform swimmers is analyzed in: S. Ramananarivo, R. Godoy-Diana, and B. Thiria. Passive elastic mechanism to mimic fish-muscles action in anguilliform swimming. J. R. Soc. Interface, 10, 20130667 (2013). DOI:10.1098/rsif.2013.0667