Accelerating fishes increase propulsive efficiency by modulating vortex ring geometry.

ABSTRACT: Swimming animals need to generate propulsive force to overcome drag, regardless of whether they swim steadily or accelerate forward. While locomotion strategies for steady swimming are well characterized, far less is known about acceleration. Animals exhibit many different ways to swim steadily, but we show here that this behavioral diversity collapses into a single swimming pattern during acceleration regardless of the body size, morphology, and ecology of the animal. We draw on the fields of biomechanics, fluid dynamics, and robotics to demonstrate that there is a fundamental difference between steady swimming and forward acceleration. We provide empirical evidence that the tail of accelerating fishes can increase propulsive efficiency by enhancing thrust through the alteration of vortex

SUBMITTER: Akanyeti O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5748167 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature