Relationship between arm propulsive force and arm kinematics in swimming: experimental and numerical study

In competitive swimming, upper limb-generated propulsive force is a key determinant of performance. This study combines robotic experiments and unsteady CFD simulations to examine the evolution of propulsive force as a function of arm rotational frequency under controlled conditions. Unlike previous robotic or numerical studies, identical time-resolved kinematics were imposed in both approaches, enabling direct comparison. Propulsive force increased quadratically with frequency, ranging from 27.45 to 120.48 N over 0.46-0.76 Hz. At 0.70 Hz, representative of competitive swimming, experimental and CFD results differed by only 8 %. These findings provide an experimentally validated framework linking swimming kinematics to propulsion.