Interactions between internal forces, body stiffness, and fluid environment in a neuromechanical model of lamprey swimming.

ABSTRACT: Animal movements result from a complex balance of many different forces. Muscles produce force to move the body; the body has inertial, elastic, and damping properties that may aid or oppose the muscle force; and the environment produces reaction forces back on the body. The actual motion is an emergent property of these interactions. To examine the roles of body stiffness, muscle activation, and fluid environment for swimming animals, a computational model of a lamprey was developed. The model uses an immersed boundary framework that fully couples the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid dynamics with an actuated, elastic body model. This is the first model at a Reynolds number appropriate for a swimming fish that captures the complete fluid-structure interaction, in which the body deforms ac

SUBMITTER: Tytell ED 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2993357 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature