2018 participants

Edward Land

  • MEng Marine Technology with honours in Marine Engineering
  • An experimental study of oscillating fins as bioinspired propulsors for Marine Vehicles

Compare results gathered with mathematical models which have been developed in-house.

The project will comprise of investigating the power generation and efficiency of oscillating fins in order to explore alternative forms of propulsion for marine vehicles instead of just propellers and if it is possible to generate the required power at a reasonable efficiency to be a suitable replacement for propellers in order to minimise noise and vibration caused by the ship which can be harmful to marine animals.

 Tasks will include: -   Reading around the physics of thrust and torque generated by an oscillating fin.

-       Designing and conducting experiments in order to measure the thrust and torque generated by fins of varying size and shape and at various oscillating speed.

-       Calculating the efficiency of various fins based on test results.

-       Comparing results from various fins to find optimum fin characteristics 

Funded by: Newcastle University

Project Supervisor: Dr Maryam Haroutunian