Hydrodynamic body shape analysis and their impact on swimming performance

This study presents the hydrodynamic characteristics of different adult male swimmer's body shape using computational fluid dynamics method. This simulation strategy is carried out by CFD fluent code with solving the 3D incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using the RNG k-ε turbulence closure. The water free surface is captured by the volume of fluid (VOF) method. A set of full body models, which is based on the anthropometrical characteristics of the most common male swimmers, is created by Computer Aided Industrial Design (CAID) software, Rhinoceros. The analysis of CFD results revealed that swimmer’s body shape has a noticeable effect on the hydrodynamics performances. This explains why male swimmer with an inverted triangle body shape has good hydrodynamic characteristics for competitive swimming.