In the literature, hydrodynamic models of fish swimming have typically been based on the use of a dipole. Despite their widespread adoption, there has been no validation study on the use of these models.
In their new study, our Postdoctoral Associate Peng Zhang, Prof. Sean D.Peterson from University of Waterloo, and Prof. Maurizio Porfiri have developed accurate fluid dynamics simulations to study reduced-order models of fish swimming. While they observed a flow similar to that generated by dipole models in the vicinity of the fish, they found that the flow at the back of the fish is not adequately represented by these models. To close this gap, they proposed the addition of a vortex sheet beyond the fish, similar to previous models for airfoils.
Read the paper “Dipole- and vortex sheet-based models of fish swimming”, published in Journal of Theoretical Biology, here.
Image credit: Peng Zhang et al.