This paper presents an innovative design for a biomimetic whale shark-like underwater glider aiming at the combination of high maneuverability and long duration. As a hybrid of the underwater glider and the robotic fish, its pectoral fins and tail can serve as not only the external control surfaces for attitude regulation during gliding but also the propellers for agile fish-like swimming mode. To verify the gliding capability of the whale shark-like glider and prepare for future dynamic analysis, the hydrodynamic coefficients, including drag, lift, sliding force, and corresponding moments are estimated through computational fluid dynamics method. In addition, the hydrodynamic analyses of the proposed glider and an equivalent conventional glider during steady gliding motion are executed for comparison. Extended experiments are performed to verify the downward gliding performance. The results reveal that the whale shark-like glider has less drag as well as higher lift-to-drag ratio and a markable gliding capability in practice. It may offer important inspiration for improving the gliding efficiency and performance of an underwater glider in biomimetic shape design.

中文翻译：

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新型鲸鲨类水下滑翔机的水动力分析与验证

本文提出了一种仿生鲸鲨状水下滑翔机的创新设计，旨在兼具高机动性和长寿命。作为水下滑翔机和机器鱼的混合体，它的胸鳍和尾巴不仅可以用作滑翔时姿态调节的外部控制面，而且还可以用作类似于鱼的敏捷游泳方式的螺旋桨。为了验证类似鲸鲨的滑翔机的滑行能力并为将来的动力学分析做准备，通过计算流体动力学方法估算了水动力系数，包括阻力，升力，滑动力以及相应的力矩。此外，还对拟议的滑翔机和同等传统滑翔机在稳定滑翔运动期间的流体力学分析进行了比较。进行扩展实验以验证向下滑行性能。结果表明，在实践中，类似鲸鲨的滑翔机具有较小的阻力，较高的升阻比和显着的滑行能力。它可以为仿生形状设计中改善水下滑翔机的滑行效率和性能提供重要的启示。