Analysis of swimmer’s hand velocity, orientation and shape using computational fluid dynamics

Milda Bilinauskaite1 , Vishveshwar Rajendra Mantha2 , Pranas Ziliukas3 , Antonio Jose Silva4

1, 3Kaunas University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Design, Kaunas, Lithuania

1Kaunas University of Technology, Institute of Mechatronics, Kaunas, Lithuania

2, 4Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sport Sciences, Exercise and Health, University of Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

2, 4Centre of Research in Sports, Health and Human Development, CIDESD, Vila Real, Portugal

1Corresponding author

Vibroengineering PROCEDIA, Vol. 3, 2014, p. 292-295.
Accepted 17 September 2014; published 10 October 2014

Copyright © 2014 JVE International Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Abstract.

The aim of current study is to determine the hydrodynamic characteristics of swimmer’s hand models with different shapes, for various combinations of its orientation and velocity, simulating propulsive phase of front crawl swimming. A real swimmer’s hand with closed and separated fingers was scanned using 3D scanner. The fluid flow simulation was carried out using ANSYS FLUENT®, for the investigation of hydrodynamic parameter's distribution around the swimmer's hand model. Drag and lift forces were calculated using computational fluid dynamics in steady state. The study demonstrates that, in all cases hand model with separated fingers generates higher drag force than hand model with closed finger's. Therefore hand model with separated fingers is able to produce higher forward propulsion in propulsive phase of front crawl swimming.

Keywords: drag force, lift force, propulsive phase, front crawl swimming.

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