Compliant nozzle system and method for fluid jet impulse

Abstract

An exemplary squid-inspired soft nozzle device that is designed to boost the performance of rotary marine propulsors, such as ship or underwater vehicle propellers. A fluid jet system comprises a fluid inlet; an actuator operatively coupled to the fluid inlet, the actuator configured, via a control signal from a controller, to deliver a time-varying flow to generate a jet pulse having an acceleration phase and a deceleration phase; and a compliant nozzle in fluid communication with the actuator, the compliant nozzle comprising an elastically deformable wall that terminates at a nozzle outlet, wherein the compliant nozzle is configured such that the elastically deformable wall expands during at least a portion of the acceleration phase to store elastic strain energy and recoils during at least a portion of the deceleration phase to release at least a portion of the stored elastic strain energy to the jet through the nozzle outlet.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.