Unsteady fluid mechanics effects in water based human locomotion

Computational fluid mechanics (CFD) has made substantial progress on modelling a variety of important problems in industry. However, there is still lack of reliable methods to model the motion of the body in water. This is a central issue in understanding animal and human propulsion in water not only to advance science but to explore the possibility of utilising such propulsion modes for man made vehicles. The presented work identified the added mass effect as the prime contributor to propulsive force generation. The use of boundary element method (BEM) proved very successful as it allowed reducing this dynamic problem to a quasi-static one without sacrificing accuracy in the model. The comparison between the experimental data and the simulation result was in the range of 95% (average accuracy) suggesting that the added mass effect and dynamic lift and drag are the most significant physical phenomena in propulsive force generation despite the fact that there is undoubtedly and the presence of turbulent effects that were not considered.