Vortex Dynamics Around a Fluctuating Beam

Joaquim P Jossy1, a and Aneesh A M2, b

1,2
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Pilani campus
Jhunjhunu district, Rajasthan, India-333031.
(a)
h20190036@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in
(b)
aneesh.am@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

Abstract.Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) analysis for fluctuating beam in viscous fluids has been carried out for the
preliminary design of propeller-less underwater drones. The Immersed Boundary Method has been used to address a large
variety of Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) problems such as insect flight, locomotion of fishes and batoid pieces etc. IB2d
is an open-source MATLAB code developed by Battista, which can be used for solving two-dimensional Fluid Structure
Interaction problems using the Immersed Boundary Method. The settings of IB2d solver were verified by reproducing a
flapping beam problem. The parameters for this problem were changed to study the flow generated around a beam tethered
at both ends and subjected to a perturbation of the beam in static fluid. The beam was modelled as a set of Lagrangian
points for a given length and stiffness value and the fluid around the beam is modelled as a Eulerian region of certain
viscosity and density. The beam was perturbed from its equilibrium position by an ellipsoidal arc and the dynamics of
vortices around the beams were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The simulations were repeated by varying
viscosities of the Eulerian region, varying length of the beam and varying stiffness values between the Lagrangian points.
The parametric study shows that the magnitude of vorticity around the beam reduces with increase in viscosity and stiffness
It is also found that for the same curvature, the motion speed reduces with reduction in the beam length.

INTRODUCTION

There is a growing interest for the undisturbed exploration of delicate marine ecology using propeller-less
underwater drones. Scyphozoa is a class of jellyfish distinguished by their bell-shaped dome whose motion through
water has been a point of interest owing to their lower energy requirement for propulsion. The dynamics of the
vortices produced around the bell-shaped dome and energy recapture caused due to the formation of the vortices
could play a key role in designing a propeller-less underwater drone. In view of the above, we have revisited the
classical problem of the fluctuation of a tethered beam in a viscous fluid for the design of a small bio-inspired
robot that makes use of the energy recapture caused due to the formation of the vortices.

Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) is a class of multi-physics problem in which the displacement of a structure
affects the fluid flow past them. The fluid flow may have considerable impact on the deformation of the structure
and this two-way coupling is essential in modelling a wide variety of engineering problems that has application in
various engineering design problems, specifically bio-engineering [1]. To name a few, problems such as Vortex
induced vibration [2, 3], motion of a number of species like microorganisms, insects [4] and batoid pieces [5],
blood flow through arteries [6], human phonation [7] and movement of bolus in the esophagus [8] require the
coupling of fluid and solid motions.

The three well known solution methodologies for Fluid Structure Interaction problems are (i) Arbitrary Lagrangian
Eulerian (ALE), (ii) Immersed Boundary Method and (iii) Coupled Momentum method. ALE is a conforming
mesh type of solver where the interface between fluid and solid is considered to be a physical boundary [9]. Euler
approach is used for tracking the fluid while Lagrangian approach is used for the solid. Boundary conditions are
applied at the interface for both fluid and solid governing equations and thus the communication between both the
domains happens through these boundary conditions. Fluid and solid domains can utilize various mesh types but
needs to be updated at every/regular time-steps. This proves to be difficult when the mesh size is large or when
the deformation is large and that is when book keeping at the interface becomes cumbersome. The Immersed
Boundary Method is a non-confirming mesh method of addressing Fluid Structure Interaction problems originally
developed by Peskin [10,11,12] for simulation blood flow through the heart valve. Since then, Immersed Boundary
Method has been used to model a large number of Fluid Structure Interaction problems like insect flight [4], heart
valve dynamics [13], phonation and vocal fold vibration [14]. The Coupled Momentum Method has been used to
address problem in hemodynamics [6].

Flexible beam in fluid has been a benchmark case for several Fluid Structure Interaction problems. A large
number of experimental and numerical evaluation of a cantilever beam moving in a fluid have been done [15].
Mahdi et al [16] have done a three-dimensional study on the fluid structure interaction of a T shaped elastic
beam and studied the deformation of the beam on the variation of the fluid velocity. Mingyang et al [17] used
cantilever beam models submerged in a fluid to simulate vegetation stems and turbine blades and studied the
effect of the flexible solid on the fluid flow. In this study, tethered beam is taken to be the source of perturbation
and fluid flow around the beam is studied using Immersed Boundary Method. This study was extended to
investigate the effects of beam and fluid parameters on the fluid structure interaction. In the present work, a
detailed study of both the beam and fluid parameters on the dynamics of vortex around a fluctuating beam is
proposed.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
A fluctuating beam with both ends fixed and completely immersed in a fluid was taken as the subject of study. The
beam has been perturbed from its equilibrium position by an ellipsoidal arc in the immersed fluid initially and then
released. The fluid around the beam starts to follow the beam fluctuations which results in the generation and the
dynamics of vortices. A schematic is shown in Figure 1 showing the return of the beam in the fluid to its mean position.

FIGURE 1: A Lagrangian Perturbed Beam in a Eulerian Grid

IMMERSED BOUNDARY METHOD

Immersed Boundary Method has been used to model the fluid structure interaction and a fixed Eulerian and a moving
Lagrangian grids are employed to capture solid and fluid motions. Immersed Boundary method formulation was
derived from the equation of motion [10] of an incompressible elastic material using the principle of least action by
giving an initial perturbation ℘,which produced a force F generated by the elasticity of the material which would
vanish at the end of the time step.

℘𝐸(𝑋(𝑟 ,𝑡),𝑡)
F (r, t) = − (1)
℘𝑋
X (r, t) in Eq. (1) is the Cartesian coordinates at time t of the material point given by Lagrangian parameter r, and F
(r, t) is the force per unit area imposed by elastic deformations in the immersed structure onto the fluid. E (𝑋(𝑟 , 𝑡), 𝑡)
denotes the elastic energy stored in the material.
The working principle behind the Immersed Boundary Method is to add a force equivalent term to the fluid equations
in the Eulerian Grids to represent the Fluid structure interaction as shown in Eq. (2). The Euler variables are introduced
to address the incompressibility during the perturbation .

𝜕𝑢(𝑥,𝑡)
𝜌( + 𝑢(𝑥, 𝑡). ∇𝑢(𝑥, 𝑡)) = −∇𝑝(𝑥, 𝑡) + 𝜇∆𝑢(𝑥, 𝑡) + 𝑓(x, t) (2)
𝜕𝑡

∇ ∙ 𝑢(𝑥, 𝑡) = 0 (3)

f (x, t) in Eq. (2) is the forcing term that arises due to the elastic deformation of the Lagrangian points. u (x, t) and p
(x, t) are the fluid velocity and pressure respectively with position x (x, y) and time, t being the independent variables.
Eq. (3) is used to address the incompressibility condition. A Dirac Delta function is used for transforming between
the Eulerian fluid motion and the Lagrangian solid motion

𝜕𝑋(𝑟,𝑡)
u (X, t) = (4)
𝜕𝑡

𝜕𝑋(𝑟 ,𝑡)
= ∫ 𝑢(𝑥, 𝑡)𝛿(𝑥 − 𝑋(𝑟, 𝑡))𝑑𝑥 (5)
𝜕𝑡

𝑓(𝑥, 𝑡) = ∫ 𝐹(𝑟, 𝑡) 𝛿(𝑥 − 𝑋(𝑟, 𝑡) 𝑑𝑟 (6)

Eqs. (4), (5) and (6) are the boundary interface conditions that are imposed with the help of the delta kernel function.

IB2d SOLVER

IB2d is a MATLAB and Python based two-dimensional Immersed Boundary solver developed by Nicholas A. Battista
et al [18,19]. IB2d is formulated using the fundamental set of equations for Immersed Boundary developed by Peskin
[11] and also follows all the implementation schemes mentioned by Peskin [12]. IB2d has been used to address a
number of problems like fluid muscle interaction [20], Vortex dynamics in embryonic trabeculated ventricles [21],
jellyfish movement [22] etc. First, force density due to the current deformation of the Immersed Boundary is
computed. Then the force is spread to the nearby Eulerian region using Eq. (6). The Navier Stokes Equation is then
solved with the additional equivalent force term as shown in Eq. (2) and (3). Lastly, the Lagrangian points are moved
to the new position using Eqs (4) and (5).

Input Parameters

The Fluid parameters required for input are viscosity and density. Temporal parameters of time step and end time.
Grid parameters which include size of grids as well as length of grid and also the Dirac delta support. The Lagrangian
model to be used and also the fibre models to be used needs to be specified. Geometry of the Lagrangian points along
with their coordinates in the Eulerian region need to be given. The Printing and plotting options can also be given.

Algorithm

The IBM Driver is responsible for the solving the two-dimensional Immersed Boundary methods in a rectangular
domain. The initial part of the IBM Driver involves assigning the various input parameters to different variables and
checking for the various fibre models like beams, spring, target points, gravity, biosignature, concentration gradient
etc. are to be used for running the simulations. The next portion is involved in creating the grid and mesh size for the
Euler domain. The Simulations is run with the aim of carrying out the following four steps till the time limit is reached
progressing in each time step.
STEP 1: Update Position of Boundary of membrane at half time-step
The first step here is to store the indices of those Eulerian grid points whose delta function is non-zero. This is done
by calculating the distance horizontal and vertical distance of all Lagrangian points with all the Eulerian grid points
and comparing the distance with the delta kernel condition. Once the non-zeros indices are obtained, the Lagrangian
points are reshaped for determining the distance between the Lagrangian coordinate point and the nearest possible
non-zero Eulerian grid point. The next step is to compute the delta kernel by taking the distance calculated of those
possible non-zeros Eulerian and Lagrangian coordinates. based on the distance using the Old delta Approximation
as shown in Eq. (7) and (8) where r is the distance between the Lagrangian and Eulerian point.

1 rπ
ϕ(r) = (1 + cos ) where⌈r⌉ < 2 (7)
4 2

ϕ(r) = 0 elsewhere (8)

STEP 2: Calculate Force coming from membrane at half time-step

IB2d has a number of inbuilt fibre models that are used to model the material properties of the solid. These fibre
models are designed to have scientific applications. These fibre models need to be given as input in the Lagrangian
parameters. Some of the fibre models available are Hookean and non-Hookean springs to model stretching between
Lagrangian points using, Torsion springs to model bending porosity models to allow fluid to pass through and many
more. All the different fibre models available can be viewed in [18,19]. These models give the Force density F, based
on the deformation of the Lagrangian points. The Forces along the horizontal and vertical directions are calculated
with the help of the fibre models. These forces in the Lagrangian domain are then transformed into their Eulerian form
with the Delta function calculated in step 1 points based on the distance between the Lagrangian point and the Eulerian
grid

STEP 3: Solve for Fluid motion

The computed horizontal and vertical forces are added to the respective Navier Stokes equations. The non-linear terms
are discretized using central difference scheme and the Laplacian terms are subject to the same discretization. The
horizontal and vertical momentum equation terms void of the pressure terms after discretization are turned into a linear
system of equations with the numerical value of the horizontal and vertical forces as right-hand side equations. IB2d
can be solved only for those problems where a periodic Boundary is used. For this reason, Fast Fourier Transform
(FFT) is used for solving the Navier Stokes equations These terms are then subjected to FFT to transform into state
space After this the pressure terms are calculated with these terms. The fluid velocity in state space is calculated with
the pressure terms in state space. The value obtained is then converted back into real space. The operations are first
carried out at half time step. After the velocities at half step are obtained, these newly obtained values are again
subjected to another half time step to obtain a fulltime step value.

STEP 4: Update Position of Boundary of membrane again for a half time-step

Now the same procedure as step 1 is carried out. The difference is that the first step was carried out from initial
previous step Lagrangian position and then updated into a new half step Lagrangian position with velocity terms of
previous time step. Now that the new velocity is found, the half time step position obtained in the first step is updated
to the full-time position with the new velocity obtained. The CFL number and the printing functions are carried out
after this. The values of velocity, force and Lagrangian position are converted into vtk format for use in Paraview
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

All the simulations were done using the IB2d code on MATLAB which is licensed to Birla Institute of Technology
and Science, Pilani. The variation in parameters were carried out in a 1m*1m Space Eulerian Grid space divided into
220*220 grid points. The Eulerian space was assigned a density of 1kgm/s. The Beam was made up of 440 Lagrangian
points. All the simulations were run for a total time 0.5 seconds with a time step of 0.00005 seconds. The simulation
time of 0.5 seconds was selected as the beam showed no significant motion after 0.5 seconds. For modelling the
flexible nature of the beam, two inbuilt fibre models of IB2d were called upon- the Torsional Beam functions and the
target points function. The Torsional beam energy is defined as per Eq. (9) and is used to model resistance of bending
between three Lagrangian points
1
𝐸𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑑 = 𝑘𝐵 (𝑧̂ . (𝑋𝑅 − 𝑋𝑀 ) ∗ (𝑋𝑀 − 𝑋𝐿 ) − 𝐶)2 (9)
2

where 𝑋𝑅 , 𝑋𝐿 , and 𝑋𝑀 are right, left, and master Lagrangian mode coordinates, and C that C is curvature defined at
the desired angle θ and distances between links
𝑇
The target points deformation energy is defined as per Eq. (10) where 𝐾𝑡 is the target point stiffness and 𝑋𝑀 and 𝑋𝑀
are the coordinates of the physical Lagrangian point and virtual target point, respectively
1 𝑇 ‖2
𝐸𝑇 (𝑋𝑀 ) = 𝐾𝑡 ‖𝑋𝑀 − 𝑋𝑀 (10)
2

The vorticity, velocity and pressure values of all the grid points for every timestep were imported for analysis into
Paraview. Paraview was then used to plot the results and extract the values of maximum velocity, vorticity and
pressure
The fluctuation of beam in viscous fluid considered by Battista et al [18] has been used for benchmarking the solution
settings of IB2d solver and the results were replicated for the following sets of parameters viscosity=0.02 Ns/m,
Length=0.5 m and stiffness=5× 1011 N/m. The velocity contours for the benchmark case and the present case at
various time instances have been compared which is shown in Figure 2. The comparison shows that there is a
reasonable agreement between the velocity contours

Battista et al
[18]

Present work

Time in seconds t=0 t=0.1 t=0.2 t=0.3 t=0.4 t=0.5

FIGURE 2: Comparison of velocity contours at different time instances for benchmarking the solution settings
 Vortex Dynamics

The validated case has been used to study the vortex dynamics around a fluctuating beam for three oscillations and
the time taken for each oscillation was converted into non-dimensional form with respect to the time period for the
respective cycle. The contours of velocity, vorticity and pressure at various non-dimensional time are respectively
shown in Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 5. The results show that the amplitude and magnitude of both vorticity and
velocity decrease with each cycle and also between oscillations. In Figure 4 it can be noticed that, at the start of the
oscillations, counter rotating vortices are generated at the tethered points of the beam and as the beam completes its
first half of the oscillation, the direction of the vortices changes to the opposite direction. There is a difference in
vorticity between the start of the first cycle and the start of the second and third cycle and this difference is caused due
to the preexisting vortices that are present at the end of the cycle which is absent in the start of the first cycle. Also, it
can be seen in that Figure 4 that the intensity of the vortices is more in the mean position than in the extreme position.
The velocity and vorticity imparted by the beam on the fluid can be seen more intense near the beam and reduces with
distance from the beam. The maximum velocity occurs at the center of the beam and the maximum vorticity occurs
near the tethered ends. The dampening effect of the fluid is evident with the decreasing magnitude and vorticity. Figure
5 shows the change in pressure contours as the beam undergoes three oscillations. The beam experiences a positive
lift during the first quarter and the fourth quarter of one oscillation while during the second and third quarter it
experiences a negative lift. The negative lift has a counterproductive effective in the propulsion of the system forward.
It can also be noticed that the positive lift is characterized by a negative magnitude of vorticity at the left tethered
point of the beam and positive magnitudes of vorticity at the right tethered point. There is a change of the counter
rotating vortices as the lift turns from positive to negative. Therefore, the vortices produced indicates the nature of
propulsion of the system and the modification of the vortex pairs can be used for the movement in any preferred
direction.

Effects of Dynamic Viscosity of Fluid

The effect of variation of viscosity(𝜇 = 0.06, 0.08, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 Ns/m) on the vortices generated and two kinematic
flow parameters, maximum velocity and vorticity, are studied in this section. The contours of vorticity for three cases
with different viscosity of fluids occurring during the first cycle of oscillation is shown in Figure 6. The increase in
viscosity shows a decrease in the magnitude of the vorticity and amplitude of oscillation. It was noticed that the
maximum vorticity levels occurred at the region where the beam was tethered however as viscosity is increased, the
vorticity quickly diffuses into the bulk of the fluid. Also, it is found that the maximum pressure and number of
oscillations decreases as the viscosity is increased. Further, Figure 7a and 7b clearly show that the maximum velocity
and vorticity are decreasing with respect to increasing viscosity. Similar observations have been reported by Kim et
al. [23] and Suman et al [24] where an increasing viscosity, i.e., a decreasing Reynolds number was demonstrated for
enhancing the propulsive stability.
 Non - First Cycle Second Cycle Third Cycle
dimension
al time

0.25

0.5

0.75

FIGURE 3: Velocity plots of standard case

 Non - First Cycle Second Cycle Third Cycle
dimensional
time

0.25

0.5

0.75

FIGURE 4: Vorticity plots for standard case

 Non- First Cycle Second Cycle Third Cycle
Dimensional-
time

0.25

0.5

0.75

FIGURE 5: Pressure Plots

Non- 𝜇 = 0.06 Ns/m2 𝜇 = 0.2 Ns/m2 𝜇 = 0.6 Ns/m2
Dimensional
time

0.25

0.5

0.75

FIGURE 6: Vorticity Plots for Variation in Viscosity

 (a) (b)

FIGURE 7: Effect of viscosity variation on maximum (a) velocity and (b) vorticity

Effects of Beam Length

The effect of variation of length of the fluctuating beam (L= 0.1, 0.3,0.5 and 0.7 m) on the vortices generated and the
maximum velocity and vorticity studied in this section. The plots of vorticity occurring during the first cycle of
oscillation in a non-dimensional time space is show in Figure 8. It is observed that the vorticity levels increased with
the increase in beam length and the increment is quite significant with larger beam lengths. The maximum vorticity
values were found close to the tethered region and the amplitude of oscillation of the beam is found increasing as the
beam length increases. Also, as the beam length increases, the number of oscillations, maximum velocity and pressure
are found to be increasing. Figure 9a and Figure 9b shows the variation of maximum velocity and maximum vorticity
as a function of beam length. The parametric study with the variation in beam length showed that vortices generated
increased in size with the increasing length of the beam. The increased length of the beam causes more fluid to follow
the beam motion creating larger vortices. A similar kind of behaviour was reported by Nathan Phillips et al [25] in the
effect of aspect ratio on the leading-edge vortex over an insect like flapping wing where the increasing length of the
wing increased the diameter and strength of the vortices generated around it. An increasing beam length causes an
increasing Reynold number which results in various flow instabilities as noted earlier by Kim et al. [23] and Suman
et al [24] .
 Non- L = 0.3m L = 0.5 m L = 0.7 m
Dimensional
Time

0.25

0.5

0.75

FIGURE 8: Vorticity Plots for the Variation in Length

 (a) (b)

FIGURE 9: Effect of beam length variation on maximum (a) velocity and (b) vorticity

Effects of Beam Stiffness

As per the fibre model used in IB2d, as the bending stiffness (k) increases, the tendency of the Lagrangian points to
return from its state of deflected to null state increases. To study the impact of bending stiffness on the maximum
velocity and vorticity, cases with k= 5× 1007 , 5× 1009 5e× 1011 and 5× 1012 N/m have been simulated and the
contours of vorticity for two cases are compared in Figure 10. The contours show that there is a significant increase
in the vorticity with increased stiffness of the beam. The stiffer beam undergoes more oscillations, generates more
vortices, and thrust at the expense of larger excitation force. Figure 11a and Figure 11b further demonstrates that
maximum velocity and vorticity increases as the bending stiffness increases. Hence, an increased stiffness of the beam
helps not only to improve the stability of the beam but also to enhance the propulsive efficiency [26], both at the
expense of larger excitation force.

CONCLUSIONS

The beam tethered at both ends and perturbed from an ellipsoidal arc in an immersed fluid was modelled using IB2d
solver for the design of propellor less underwater drones. The results showed the formation of two counter rotating
vortices whose strength was found decreasing with time. The counter rotating vortices are found to change its direction
of rotation as the lift turns from positive to negative and this nature of propulsion of the system may be exploited to
facilitate propulsion in any preferred direction. Based on the parametric study with fluid viscosity, it is found that the
maximum vorticity levels occurred at the region where the beam was tethered however as viscosity is increased, the
vorticity quickly diffuses into the bulk of the fluid. The increased length of the beam causes more fluid to follow the
beam motion creating larger vortices and an increased stiffness of the beam helps to improve the stability of the beam
as well as the propulsive efficiency of the system, both at the expense of larger excitation force.
Non-Dimensional 𝑘𝐵 = 5× 1011 N/m 𝑘𝐵 = 5× 1012 N/m
Time

0.25

0.5

0.75

FIGURE 10: Vorticity Plots for the Variation in Stiffness

(a) (b)

FIGURE 11: Effect of beam stiffness variation on maximum (a) velocity and (b) vorticity

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 Appendix I: Grid Independence test

Simulations were run to check the Grid dependency of the beam under study for a set value of viscosity and beam
properties. The maximum value at the end of the first half of the oscillation was taken as the point of reference and
the maximum vorticity value and the time of occurrence of that point was noted for various grid sizes. The values of
vorticity and their time of occurrence at various grid sizes are shown below in Table 1.

TABLE 1. Grid dependency vorticity and occurrence values

No Grid size Vorticity value Occurrence of a maximum value
1 64*64 312.85 0.00355 s
2 128*128 257.535 0.00460 s
3 200*200 243.675 0.0061 s
4 220*220 243.134 0.0066 s

All the simulations were run with a timestep of 0.00005 seconds. A grid size of 220*220 was considered suitable for
running the simulations as any further increase in grid size had to compensated with expensive computational costs.