| Summary: | Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2004. === Includes bibliographical references (leaves 29-31). === An experimental and numerical study was conducted to better understand the mechanics of motion of the three-linked swimmer in viscous fluid. Numerical studies in C++ were used to predict the velocity and motion of the swimmer using a modified analytical model that considers the dynamical and orientational effects of rods at the surface of a fluid. Computational simulations were graphically used to understand the pressure and velocity distributions of the fluid-structure interactions of the three-linked swimmer, with slightly different movement, using an immersed boundary method computer program. Experiments using a mechanical prototype of a three-linked swimmer were conducted to validate and compare the numerical predictions derived from computational studies. Experimental results indicate that a flexible armed swimmer is more than three times as fast as its rigid armed counterpart. The analytical model presented in this study and the corresponding computational numerical simulations were found to capture the trends of the motion, and the predicted horizontal velocity came within 66% in value of the recorded experimental data. === by Susan YeYoung Ji. === S.B.
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