Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Lacis U
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4220513 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Nature communications 20141030
Plants and animals use plumes, barbs, tails, feathers, hairs and fins to aid locomotion. Many of these appendages are not actively controlled, instead they have to interact passively with the surrounding fluid to generate motion. Here, we use theory, experiments and numerical simulations to show that an object with a protrusion in a separated flow drifts sideways by exploiting a symmetry-breaking instability similar to the instability of an inverted pendulum. Our model explains why the straight ...[more]