Meeting Abstract

P1.201  Friday, Jan. 4  Convergent inflexion patterns of flexible margins of oscillating animal propulsors during swimming and flight LUCAS, K.N.*; JOHNSON, N.; COSTELLO, J.H.; COLIN, S.P.; Roger Williams Univ.; Texas A and M Univ.; Providence College; Roger Williams Univ. klucas830@g.rwu.edu

Propulsion of swimming and flying animals in relatively high Reynolds number fluids is dependent on kinetic energy transfer via vortices, and as such, these animals cruise with vortex kinematics tuned for high hydrodynamic or aerodynamic efficiency. Recently, flexible margins of oscillating propulsors have been shown to significantly enhance thrust during propulsion. This suggests that flexible margins should demonstrate selection for morphologies that optimize thrust and efficiency. We examined if patterns existed across swimming and flying animals in how their propulsors inflexed during propulsion. Inflexion angles and ratios were measured using video of multiple animal species representing several divergent evolutionary lineages during steady state swimming and flying. Aggregate groupings of these measurements fell within strict ranges: ˜10°-40° for inflexion angles and ˜0.6-0.7 for inflexion ratios. These patterns suggest an optimization of propulsors which is likely related thrust generation.