Improving understanding of human swimming using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Abstract

An evaluation of human swimming strokes is conducted using the computational fluid dynamics technique Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH). This Lagrangian mesh-less approach handles the modeling challenges of the deforming swimmer geometry, multiple phases and complex fluid free surface. Realistic human swimmer geometries are obtained from laser scans of athletes and video footage is used as a reference for animating these swimmer surface meshes. This investigation focuses on the effect of ankle flexibility in submerged dolphin kick swimming and on the arm thrust generated during backstroke swimming. © 2010 International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.