Applied Interdisciplinary Mathematics (AIM) Seminar

Swimming and flying animals rely on the fluid around them to provide lift or thrust forces, leaving behind a distinct vortex wake in the fluid. The structure and size of the vortex wake is a blueprint of the animal's kinematic trajectory, holding information about the forces and also the size, speed and direction of motion. This talk will introduce a bio-inspired oscillating turbine, which can be operated to generate energy from moving water through lift generation, in the same manner as flapping birds or bats. This style of turbines offers distinct benefits compared with traditional rotation-based turbines such as the ability to dynamically shift its kinematics for changing flow conditions, thus altering its wake pattern. Current efforts lie in predicting the vortex formation and dynamics of the highly structured wake such that it can be utilized towards cooperative motion within arrays of oscillating foils. Using numerical simulations, this talk will discuss efforts towards linking the fluid dynamic wake signature to the underlying foil kinematics, and investigating how that effects the energy harvesting performance of downstream foils. Two machine learning methodologies are introduced to classify, cluster and identify complex vorticity patterns and modes of energy harvesting, and inform more detailed modeling of arrays of oscillating foils. Speaker(s): Jennifer Franck (University of Wisconsin)