Computational analysis of fluid-structure interaction in case of fish swimming in the vortex street

The fluid-structure interaction (FSI) in case of fish swimming in the vortex street is investigated by numerical simulations. The vortex street is generated by a D-section cylinder. A 2-D fish model is placed on the downstream centerline of the bluff cylinder at a distance of 4 diameters away from the center of the cylinder. To simulate the fish body undulation and movement, the moving mesh is generated by a coupling approach based on the radial basis function and the overset grid technology. The Navier-Stokes equation in the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian form is solved by coupling with the kinematics equation. Three cases are investigated: in a stationary position without deformation, a passive locomotion without deformation, and an active deformation based on the Karman gait model. The results indicate that the fish body is acted by an alternating force and moment when it is located in the centerline of the vortex street. Furthermore, the fish could extract sufficient kinetic energy to overcome the drag under suitable conditions even when it keeps rigid and out of the suction zone. When the fish body undulates based on the Karman gait model, the interaction is evidently shown between the fish body and the vortices. The theoretical analysis demonstrates that the lateral force and the moment acting on the fish body vary in a cosine formula, with the lateral translation and the body rotation as a result. This study focuses on the behavior of the fish body in the bluff cylinder wake and reproduces some phenomena observed in the experiments. Besides, the Karman gait model is also theoretically analyzed, for the further exploration of the FSI mechanism in case of fish swimming.