Alexandre Munnier

Numerics

A Matlab toolbox

B. Pinçon and I have developed the Biohydrodynamics Matlab Toolbox (BhT), allowing one  to easily realize simulations of rigid solids moving in a perfect fluid with potential flow.

• Example 1 : Free motion of ten solids in a perfect fluid with potential flow.  The fluid domain is bounded and collisions are supported by BhT.
  

  Play the video

• Example 2 : Swimming fish robot made of 5 ellipse-shaped rigid solids. With BhT, it is possible to link together rigid solids by means of hinges and design swimming  articulated bodies.

  Play the video

BhT contains also tools to study the exchanges of energy between the immersed solids and the fluid and to compute the work, the power or the torques exerted at the joints of the swimming articulated solid bodies.

Further information is available on BhT home page (hosted by Inria Gforge) and on the  BhT demo page.

Control of a shape-changing body in a perfect fluid

T. Chambrion and I have studied the controllability of a model of shape-changing body swimming in a perfect fluid with potential flow. Numerical simulations are available on the dedicated web page.

Passive and Self-propelled locomotion of an Elastic Swimmer

In this article, I show that a hyperelastic shape changing body is able to swim in a perfect fluid at zero energy cost. A dedicated web page containing plenty of videos is available here.