Optimum Finger Spacing for Swimmers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of spreading the fingers in human swimming. Two-dimensional CFD simulations were carried out to gain insight into this problem, modelling the fingers by equidistant cylinders. One, two and then four cylinders were studied with varying distance. The effect of the thumb was neglected. The drag coefficients of the individual cylinders in the assembly were then compared with each other and other previously published data. The power spectrum of the drag coefficients and videos of the velocity contours were also examined. The dominant frequency, its subharmonics as well as the qualitative appearance of the flow varied strongly with the finger distance. Contrary to other studies and our expectations, the optimum finger spacing proved to be the zero distance configuration.