Hydrodynamics of a tandem fish school with asynchronous undulation of individuals

Abstract We perform numerical simulations using immersed boundary method for flow over a single and two fish in tandem performing traveling wave like motion for a range of Strouhal numbers. We investigate the hydrodynamic performance of single- and tandem-fish configurations using unsteady profiles of lateral side-force and drag coefficients, their time-averaged values, and wake behind these bodies. We present the spectra of hydrodynamic forces and find that the nature of these forces for a single fish resembles to those of stationary/oscillating bluff bodies and oscillating airfoils. For tandem cases, we vary the phase speed of undulatory motion of the rear fish while keeping the free-stream velocity constant. We show that hydrodynamic forces of the upstream and rear fish contain harmonics which are produced by nonlinear interaction of the oscillation frequencies of both fish. We find that the wake and time-averaged drag of the upstream fish remain almost independent of the undulating frequency of the rear fish at a certain Strouhal number. We also relate this observation with the absence of oscillation frequency of the rear fish in the Fourier spectra of hydrodynamic forces of the upstream fish. For the complete range of parameters, it is inferred that swimming in a tandem configuration seems more beneficial for the upstream fish. It happens due to wake-splitting effect of the rear fish that causes an enhancement of pressure in its wake. For the rear fish, it gains an advantage of drafting under certain conditions and its performance deteriorates at Strouhal numbers greater than 0.40.