Thrust Enhancement From Radial Velocity in Squid Inspired Thrusters Available to Purchase

Squid and jellyfish generate propulsive forces by successively taking in and expelling high momentum jets of water. This method of propulsion offers several advantages to underwater vehicles/robots. The driving mechanism can be placed internal to the vehicle, reducing the drag associated with an abundance of external thrusters and control surfaces. The thrusters can generate accurate predictable forcing in the low thrust range, while still generating thrust nearly instantaneously over the entire force range. Vortex ring formation dynamics play an important role in creating thrust. It is observed that squid and jellyfish eject fluid jets which are not exactly parallel, and have a contracting velocity in the radial direction. A prototype thruster was developed which generates both parallel and converging propulsive jets. The total impulse of the jet is determined from DPIV techniques to determine the effect a non-zero radial velocity had on thrust production. The radial velocity was observed to increase the total impulse of the jet by 70% for low stroke ratio jets, and 75% for large stroke ratio jets.