TRIANTAFYLLOU , Michael S*; YUE, Dick; HOVER, Franz; TECHET, Alex: Vorticity Control in Fish-like Propulsion and Maneuvering

The flow around the bodies of swimming animals is dominated by the formation, growth and shedding of large scale vorticity. The physical mechanisms governing the growth of the vortices and their interactions provide scaling laws which characterize the swimming and maneuvering of fish. We outline these laws in conjunction with the specifics of the structure of the unsteady, three-dimensional vorticity, as revealed through particle image velocimetry and numerical simulation, to arrive at a theory of fish swimming and maneuvering.