Date Approved

5-12-2026

Graduate Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Engineering (M.S.E.)

Degree Program

School of Engineering

First Advisor

Farid Jafari

Second Advisor

Sanjivan Manoharan

Third Advisor

Abishek Balsamy-Kamaraj

Academic Year

2025/2026

Abstract

The interaction of structures and fluids is highly relevant in many fields but difficult to accurately and reliably characterize. This study demonstrates a novel method of simplifying such problems by analyzing the structural deformations directly, without needing to explicitly solve for the fluid aspect. Six cantilever beams of varying properties were submerged in still water and released from an initial deflection at the free end: the cases consisted of three beam shapes (one of uniform width, one with a narrower free end, and one with a wider free end), with an end mass attached or detached. High-speed videography was utilized to capture the dynamic beam deformations. Polynomial curves were fit to these deflections, and the frequency response, damping ratio, and resultant forces for each case were compared. The standard case of the uniform rectangular beam, no end mass attached, displayed a trend consistent with current knowledge (Chu’s equation for a rectangular cantilever beam in inviscid flow), with an average offset of 17.70%, and the other no-mass cases increasingly aligned with theoretical predictions after the first half-cycle. The wider free end case observed the lowest forces (34.14% and 56.13% lower than the rectangular shape for the no mass and mass cases) and the narrow free end case observed the highest forces (265.23% and 381.43% higher for no mass and mass), despite having the greatest and smallest free end surface areas, respectively. This indicates that achieving effective propulsion from vibrating beams is dependent on more than just geometry. Overall, the method was successful in obtaining frequency and force results solely from dynamic beam deformation. As future work, it is recommended to integrate a force sensor into the setup or to use a two-way FSI coupling simulation to further validate this method.

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