Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Open Access Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Advisor 1

Vijaya V.N. Sriram Malladi

Committee Member 1

Kazuya Tajiri

Committee Member 2

Susanta Ghosh

Abstract

The method of generating steady-state structure-borne traveling waves underwater in an infinite media creates abundant opportunities in the field of propulsive applications, and they are gaining attention from several researchers. This experimental study provides a framework for harnessing traveling waves in a 1D beam immersed under quiescent water using two force input methods and providing a motion to an object floating on the surface of the water.

In this study, underwater traveling waves are tailored using structural vibrations at five different frequencies in the range of 10Hz to 300Hz. The resulting fluid motion provides a propulsive thrust that moves a 3D-printed bob floating on the surface of the water. The undulatory motion of the floating bob is determined using an image processing approach. In this approach, videos are recorded for image processing to determine the effects of each traveling wave frequency on the object’s motion. Through image processing, observations are drawn regarding the velocity and the distance traveled by the bob for each SBTW frequency.

As this is developing research, there is a limited understanding to the relationship between the amplitude of force input, the traveling wave frequency, and the velocity attained by the object. So, with the help of image processing, a general observation about the effects of varied force input on the motion of the object at each frequency is drawn.

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