arXiv subjects

Karen Mulleners

Publications and source records attributed to Karen Mulleners.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A spinal circuit for collective coordination

The coordinated movement of animal groups is one of the most widespread social behaviors, which are generally attributed to high-order cognitive processing in the brain. Yet, collective coordination can seemingly emerge from rapid, local interactions between individuals, suggesting the existence of decentralized mechanisms of online coordination that remain to be identified. Here, we show that a low-order spinal sensorimotor circuit is required for real-time social coordination during schooling in zebrafish. Central to this circuit are intraspinal proprioceptive neurons that detect local body bending and deliver direct, curvature-based inhibition to precisely time the locomotor network. Combining electrophysiology, calcium imaging, optogenetics, and behavioral analysis, we show that this circuit encodes both self-generated (egocentric) and neighbor-induced (allocentric) body bending signals, enabling fish to match the phase of their swimming to the wakes of their neighbors (vortex phase matching). In a neuromechanical model and physical robot, this single feedback loop is sufficient to generate vortex phase matching and to lower the energetic cost of swimming. Disrupting this circuit uncouples neighboring fish and abolishes schooling behavior. These results show that a spinal circuit dynamically synchronizes individuals through simple, local interactions, revealing how low-order mechanisms can drive the emergence of coordinated group behavior.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2026

Tethering and depth of submergence affect the swimming performance of undulatory robots

Over the past few decades, biomimetic robotic experiments have significantly advanced our understanding of undulatory swimming. Compared to animal experiments, robotic experiments offer repeatability and controlled parameter variations, but the robots operate under constraints that differ from those experienced by their natural counterparts. Freely swimming robots often remain on the surface, whereas most undulatory fish, including eels, are typically fully submerged during locomotion. Studies focusing on submerged swimming commonly rely on tethered robots to maintain depth control. This study examines the performance implications for free versus tethered swimming at the surface, and for tethered swimming at the surface to tethered fully submerged swimming, using the robotic undulatory swimmer 1-guilla. The robot was tested in two configurations: free swimming in a pool and tethered swimming in a water channel at the surface and at varying depths down to three body heights. We varied kinematic input parameters and quantified performance in terms of swimming speed, cost of transport, and body kinematics. At the surface, tethered swimming achieves speeds comparable to free swimming but at a lower energetic cost. The reduction in cost of transport is attributed to the mechanical stabilisation imposed by tethering. Increasing submergence depth improved both the maximum speed and energy efficiency by more than 10% relative to the surface swimming performance. As the body kinematics remained unchanged when submerged, the performance deficit near the surface is attributed to increased wave drag. Overall, our findings provide explanations and insights into discrepancies in results obtained for tethered and free-swimming robotic studies, they highlight the hydrodynamic challenges of surface locomotion, and can help explain why natural undulatory swimmers predominantly favour submerged propulsion.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2026

On the wake and flapping dynamics of different aspect ratio flags

The flapping of flags is a classical problem involving fast and large amplitude deformations of a thin flexible plate and unsteady flow phenomena. We perform systematic time and space-resolved measurements of the deformation and drag acting on flapping flags for various aspect ratios and mass ratios. Bending waves travel from the root to the tip at a speed close to the incoming flow and the typical wavelength of the waves scales with the length of the flag. With smaller aspect ratio, the local dynamic pressure exerted by the fluid on the flag is reduced, lowering the wave propagation speed, and reducing the tip frequency. The effect of aspect ratio on the vortex formation in the near wake is analysed using flow field measurements. We identified two characteristic length scales, the ratio of the flag area over its perimeter $L^*$ and the square root of area $\sqrt{HL}$ that scale the circulation shed during a cycle. Changes in aspect ratio and mass ratio generate a wide scattering of the mean drag coefficient, ranging from 0 to 0.55. We discuss a kinematic-based model for the mean drag coefficient. This model uses the mass ratio and the typical tip speed, which depends linearly on the wave speeds, to predict the mean drag coefficient without any fitting parameter.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Dynamic Stall Characteristics and Modelling of Time-Varying Pitching Kinematics

We present an experimental investigation examining how the complexity of pitching kinematics influences dynamic stall characteristics, including the stall delay and aerodynamic force response. The study examines whether the pitch rate defined at the static stall angle adequately characterises time-varying pitching kinematics for stall onset prediction. We then evaluate the performance of the generalised Goman-Khrabrov model in predicting force responses of nonlinear pitching motions and propose necessary modifications to extend the model's applicability to complex kinematics.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Dynamic stall reattachment revisited

Dynamic stall on airfoils is an undesirable and potentially dangerous phenomenon. The motto for aerodynamic systems with unsteadily moving wings, such as helicopters or wind turbines, is that prevention beats recovery. In case prevention fails or is not feasible, we need to know when recovery starts, how long it takes, and how we can improve it. This study revisits dynamic stall reattachment to identify the sequence of events during flow and load recovery and to characterise key observable features in the pressure, force, and flow field. Our analysis is based on time-resolved velocity field and surface pressure data obtained experimentally for a two-dimensional, sinusoidally pitching thin airfoil. Stall recovery is a transient process that does not start immediately when the angle of attack falls below the critical stall angle. The onset of recovery is delayed to angles below the critical stall angle and the duration of the reattachment delay decreases with increasing unsteadiness of the pitching motion. An angle of attack below the critical angle is a necessary, but not sufficient condition to initiate the stall recovery process. We identified a critical value of the leading-edge suction parameter, independent of the pitch rate, that is a threshold beyond which reattachment consistently initiates. Based on prominent changes in the evolution of the shear layer, the leading-edge suction, and the lift deficit due to stall, we divided the reattachment process into three stages: the reaction delay, wave propagation, and the relaxation stage, and extracted the characteristic features and time-scales for each stage.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Highly deformable flapping membrane wings suppress the leading edge vortex in hover to perform better

Airborne insects generate a leading edge vortex when they flap their wings. This coherent vortex is a low pressure region that enhances the lift of flapping wings compared to fixed wings. Insect wings are thin membranes strengthened by a system of veins that does not allow large wing deformations. Bat wings are thin compliant skin membranes stretched between their limbs, hand, and body that show larger deformations during flapping wing flight. This study examines the role of the leading edge vortex on highly deformable membrane wings that passively change shape under fluid dynamic loading maintaining a positive camber throughout the hover cycle. Our experiments reveal that unsteady wing deformations suppress the formation of a coherent leading edge vortex as flexibility increases. At lift and energy optimal aeroelastic conditions, there is no more leading edge vortex. Instead, vorticity accumulates in a bound shear layer covering the wing's upper surface from the leading to the trailing edge. Despite the absence of a leading edge vortex, the optimal deformable membrane wings demonstrate enhanced lift and energy efficiency compared to their rigid counterparts. It is possible that small bats rely on this mechanism for efficient hovering. We relate the force production on the wings with their deformation through scaling analyses. Additionally, we identify the geometric angles at the leading and trailing edges as observable indicators of the flow state and use them to map out the transitions of the flow topology and their aerodynamic performance for a wide range of aeroelastic conditions.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Event-based reconstruction of time-resolved centreline deformation of flapping flags

High-speed imaging is central to the experimental investigation of fast phenomena, like flapping flags. Event-based cameras use new types of sensors that address typical challenges such as low illumination conditions, large data transfer, and the trade-off between increasing repetition rate and measurement duration more efficiently and at reduced costs compared to classical frame-based fast cameras. Event-based cameras output unstructured data that frame-based algorithms can not process. This paper proposes a general method to reconstruct the motion of a slender object similar to the centreline of a flapping flag from raw streams of event data. The method takes advantage of continuous illumination, and the reconstruction update rate is set after and independent of the data collection. Our algorithm relies on a coarse chain-like structure that encodes the current state of the line and is updated by the occurrence of new events. The algorithm is applied to synthetic data, generated from known motions, to demonstrate that the method is accurate up to one percent of error for tip-based, shape-based, and modal decomposition metrics. Degradation of the reconstruction accuracy due to simulated defects only occurs when the severity of the defects is more than two orders of magnitude larger than what we typically encounter in experiments. The algorithm is then applied to experimental data of flapping flags, and we obtain relative errors below one percent when comparing the results with the data from laser distance sensors. The reconstruction of line deformation from event-based data is accurate and robust, and unlocks the ability to perform autonomous measurements in experimental mechanics.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Highly agile flat swimming robot

Exploring bodies of water on their surface allows robots to efficiently communicate and harvest energy from the sun. On the water surface, however, robots often face highly unstructured environments, cluttered with plant matter, animals, and debris. We report a fast (5.1 cm/s translation and 195 °/s rotation), centimeter-scale swimming robot with high maneuverability and autonomous untethered operation. Locomotion is enabled by a pair of soft, millimeter-thin, undulating pectoral fins, in which traveling waves are electrically excited to generate propulsion. The robots navigate through narrow spaces, through grassy plants, and push objects weighing over 16x their body weight. Such robots can allow distributed environmental monitoring as well as continuous measurement of plant and water parameters for aqua-farming.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2023

Timescales of dynamic stall development on a vertical-axis wind turbine blade

Vertical-axis wind turbines are great candidates to diversify wind energy technology, but their aerodynamic complexity limits industrial deployment. To improve the efficiency and lifespan of vertical axis wind turbines, we desire data-driven models and control strategies that take into account the timing and duration of subsequent events in the unsteady flow development. Here, we aim to characterise the chain of events that leads to dynamic stall on a vertical-axis wind turbine blade and to quantify the influence of the turbine operation conditions on the duration of the individual flow development stages. We present time-resolved flow and unsteady load measurements of a wind turbine model undergoing dynamic stall for a wide range of tip-speed ratios. Proper orthogonal decomposition is used to identify dominant flow structures and to distinguish six characteristic stall stages: the attached flow, shear-layer growth, vortex formation, upwind stall, downwind stall, and flow reattachment stage. The timing and duration of the individual stages are best characterised by the non-dimensional convective time. Dynamic stall stages are also identified based on aerodynamic force measurements. Most of the aerodynamic work is done during the shear-layer growth and the vortex formation stage which underlines the importance of managing dynamic stall on vertical-axis wind turbines.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Proprioceptive Sensing of Soft Tentacles with Model Based Reconstruction for Controller Optimization

The success of soft robots in displaying emergent behaviors is tightly linked to the compliant interaction with the environment. However, to exploit such phenomena, proprioceptive sensing methods which do not hinder their softness are needed. In this work we propose a new sensing approach for soft underwater slender structures based on embedded pressure sensors and use a learning-based pipeline to link the sensor readings to the shape of the soft structure. Using two different modeling techniques, we compare the pose reconstruction accuracy and identify the optimal approach. Using the proprioceptive sensing capabilities we show how this information can be used to assess the swimming performance over a number of metrics, namely swimming thrust, tip deflection, and the traveling wave index. We conclude by demonstrating the robustness of the embedded sensor on a free swimming soft robotic squid swimming at a maximum velocity of 9.5 cm/s, with the absolute tip deflection being predicted within an error less than 9% without the aid of external sensors.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2022

To tread or not to tread: comparison between water treading and conventional flapping wing kinematics

Hovering insects are limited by their physiology and need to rotate their wings at the end of each back and forth motion to keep the wing's leading edge ahead of its trailing edge. The wing rotation at the end of each half-stroke pushes the leading edge vortex away from the wing which leads to a loss in the lift. Unlike biological fliers, human-engineered flapping wing micro air vehicles have different design limitations. They can be designed to avoid the end of stroke wing rotation and use so-called water-treading flapping kinematics. Flapping wings using conventional flapping kinematics have a designated leading and trailing edge. In the water-treading mode, the role of the leading and trailing edges are continuously alternated throughout the stroke. Here, we compare velocity field and force measurements for a rectangular flapping wing conducting normal hovering and water-treading kinematics to study the difference in fluid dynamic performance between the two types of flapping kinematics. We show that for similar power consumption, the water-treading mode produces more lift than the conventional hovering mode and is 50% more efficient for symmetric pitching kinematics. In the water-treading mode, the leading edge vortex from the previous stroke is not pushed away but is captured and keeps the newly formed leading edge vortex closer to the wing, leading to a more rapid increase of the lift coefficient which is sustained for longer. This makes the water-treading mode a promising alternative for human-engineered flapping wing vehicles.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

The dynamic stall dilemma for vertical-axis wind turbines

Vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWT) are excellent candidates to complement traditional wind turbines and increase the total wind energy capacity. Development of VAWT has been hampered by their low efficiency and structural unreliability, which are related to the occurrence of dynamic stall. Dynamic stall consists of the formation, growth, and shedding of large-scale dynamic stall vortices, followed by massive flow separation. The vortex shedding is detrimental to the turbine's efficiency and causes significant load fluctuations that jeopardise the turbine's structural integrity. We present a comprehensive experimental characterisation of dynamic stall on a VAWT blade including time-resolved load and velocity field measurements. Particular attention is dedicated to the dilemma faced by VAWT to either operate at lower tip-speed ratios to maximise their peak aerodynamic performance but experience dynamic stall, or to avoid dynamic stall at the cost of reducing their peak performance. Based on the results, we map turbine operating conditions to one of three regimes: deep stall, light stall, and no stall. The light stall regime offers VAWT the best compromise in the dynamic stall dilemma as it yields positive tangential forces during the upwind and downwind rotation and reduces load transients by 75% compared to the deep stall regime.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Aeroelastic characterisation of a bio-inspired flapping membrane wing

Natural fliers like bats exploit the complex fluid-structure interaction between their flexible membrane wings and the air with great ease. Yet, replicating and scaling the balance between the structural and fluid-dynamical parameters of unsteady membrane wings for engineering applications remains challenging. In this study, we introduce a novel bio-inspired membrane wing design and systematically investigate the fluid-structure interactions of flapping membrane wings. The membrane wing can passively camber and its leading and trailing edges rotate with respect to the stroke plane. We find optimal combinations of the membrane properties and flapping kinematics that out-perform their rigid counterparts both in terms of increased stroke-average lift and efficiency but the improvements are not persistent over the entire input parameter space. The lift and efficiency optima occur at different angles of attack and effective membrane stiffnesses which we characterise with the aeroelastic number. At optimal aeroelastic numbers, the membrane has a moderate camber between 15% and 20% and its leading and trailing edges align favourably with the flow. Higher camber at lower aeroelastic numbers leads to reduced aerodynamic performance due to negative angles of attack at the leading edge and an over-rotation of the trailing edge. Most of the performance gain of the membrane wings with respect to rigid wings is achieved in the second half of the stroke when the wing is decelerating. The stroke-maximum camber is reached around mid-stroke but is sustained during most of the remainder of the stroke which leads to an increase in lift and a reduction in power. Our results show that combining the effect of variable stiffness and angle of attack variation can significantly enhance the aerodynamic performance of membrane wings and has the potential to improve the control capabilities of micro air vehicles.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Lagrangian analysis of bio-inspired vortex ring formation

Pulsatile jet propulsion is a highly energy-efficient swimming mode used by aquatic animals that continues to inspire engineers of underwater vehicles. Here, we present a bio-inspired jet propulsor that combines the flexible hull of a jellyfish with the bivalve compression of a scallop to create individual vortex rings for thrust generation. Similar to biological jetters, our propulsor generates a non-linear temporal exit velocity profile and has a finite volume capacity. The formation process of the vortices generated by this jet profile is analysed using time-resolved velocity field measurements. The transient development of the vortex properties is characterised based on the evolution of ridges in the finite-time Lyapunov exponent field and on local extrema in the pressure field derived from the velocity data. Special attention is directed toward the vortex merging observed in the trailing jet. During vortex merging, the Lagrangian vortex boundaries first contract in the stream-wise direction before expanding in the normal direction to keep the non-dimensional energy at its minimum value. The circulation, diameter, and translation velocity of the vortex increase due to merging. The vortex merging takes place because the velocity of the trailing vortex is higher than the velocity of the main vortex prior to merging.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Experimental quantification of unsteady leading-edge flow separation

We propose here a method to experimentally quantify unsteady leading-edge flow separation on aerofoils with finite thickness. The methodology relies on the computation of a leading-edge suction parameter based on measured values of the partial circulation around the leading-edge and the stagnation point location. We validate the computation of the leading-edge suction parameter for both numerical and experimental data under steady and unsteady flow conditions. The leading-order approximation of the definition of the leading-edge suction parameter is proven to be sufficiently accurate for the application to thin aerofoils such as the NACA0009 without a-priori knowledge of the stagnation point location. The higher-order terms including the stagnation point location are required to reliably compute the leading-edge suction parameter on thicker aerofoils such as the NACA0015. The computation of the leading-edge suction parameter from inviscid flow theory does not assume the Kutta condition to be valid at the trailing edge which allows us to compute its value for separated flows. The relation between the leading-edge suction parameter and the evolution of the shear layer height is studied in two different unsteady flow conditions, a fixed aerofoil in a fluctuating free-stream velocity and a pitching aerofoil in a steady free-stream. We demonstrate here that the instantaneous value of the leading-edge suction parameter based on the partial circulation around the leading edge is unambiguously defined for a given flow field and can serve as a directly quantitative measure of the degree of unsteady flow separation at the leading edge.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Estimating the non-dimensional energy of vortex rings by modelling their roll-up

The non-dimensional energy of starting vortex rings typically converges to values around 0.33 when they are created by a cylinder piston or a bluff body translating at a constant speed. To explore the limits of the universality of this value and to analyse the variations that occur outside of those limits, we present an alternative approach to the slug-flow model to predict the non-dimensional energy of a vortex ring. Our approach is based on the self-similar vortex sheet roll-up described by Pullin. We derive the vorticity distribution for the vortex core resulting from a spiralling shear layer roll-up and compute the associated non-dimensional energy. To demonstrate the validity of our model, we consider different velocity profiles of the vortex generator that follow a power-law with a variable exponent m. For a constant velocity (m=0), our model yields a non-dimensional energy of E*=0.33. For a constant acceleration (m=1), we find E*=0.19. For a constant velocity, we obtain realistic vorticity distributions by radially diffusing the vorticity distribution of the Pullin spiral and predict a decrease of the non-dimensional energy from 0.33 to 0.28, in accordance with experimental results. Our proposed model offers a practical alternative to the existing slug flow model to predict the minimum non-dimensional energy of a vortex ring. The model is applicable to piston-generated and wake vortex rings and requires only the kinematics of the vortex generator as input.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

All you need is time to generalise the Goman-Khrabrov dynamic stall model

Dynamic stall on airfoils negatively impacts their aerodynamic performance and can lead to structural damage. Accurate prediction and modelling of the dynamic stall loads are crucial for a more robust design of wings and blades that operate under unsteady conditions susceptible to dynamic stall and for widening the range of operation of these lifting surfaces. Many dynamic stall models rely on empirical parameters that need to be obtained from experimental or numerical data which limits their generalisability. Here, we introduce physically derived times scales to replace the empirical parameters in the Goman-Khrabrov dynamic stall model. The physics-based time constants correspond to the dynamic stall delay and the decay rate of post-stall load fluctuations. The dynamic stall delay is largely independent of the type of the motion, the Reynolds number, and the airfoil geometry and is described as a function of a normalised instantaneous pitch rate. The post-stall decay rate is independent of the motion kinematics and is directly related to the Strouhal number of the post-stall vortex shedding. The general validity of our physics-based time constants is demonstrated using three sets of experimental dynamic stall data covering various airfoil profiles, Reynolds numbers varying from 75'000 to 1'000'000, and sinusoidal and ramp-up pitching motions. The use of physics-based time constants generalises the Goman-Khrabrov dynamic stall model and extends its range of application.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Greenberg's force prediction for vertical-axis wind turbine blades

We present a method to adapt Greenberg's potential flow model for coupled pitching and surging flow such that it can be applied to predict the loads on a vertical-axis wind turbine blade. The model is extended to compute loads on a blade undergoing multi-harmonic oscillations in effective angle of attack and incoming flow velocity by formulating the blade kinematics as a sum of simple harmonic motions. Each of these functions is a multiple of the main turbine rotational frequency, associated with an individual amplitude, as suggested by Greenberg. The results of the adapted model are compared with experimental data from a scaled-down model of a single-bladed H-type Darrieus wind turbine. The comparison between the predictions by the Greenberg model and experimentally obtained phase-averaged radial force evolutions show that the inviscid Greenberg model predicts well the loads at the start of the upwind portion and the maximum loads during upwind, but fails during the downwind portion when flow separation occurs. The proposed application of Greenberg's model to vertical-axis wind turbine kinematics shows a great potential to diagnose regions of separated flow and for quantifying the relative influences of dynamic stall and intrinsic turbine kinematics on the blade loading. Future research can readily extend this method to any airfoil undergoing an arbitrary combination of pitching, surging, and heaving, following a kinematic profile that can be approximated by a Fourier series.

physics.flu-dyn↗