Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Mechanical Engineering

Major Professor

David Murphy, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Margaret Byron, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Bradford Gemmell, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Rasim Guldiken, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Andres Tejada-Martinez, Ph.D.

Keywords

Vortex Interactions, Kinematics and Hydrodynamics, Collective Behavior, Stereophotogrammetry, Annular Flume

Abstract

This dissertation deals with one type of underwater locomotion called metachronal swimming in which the organism sequentially beats its multiple appendages allowing phase lag between adjacent neighbors. Metachronally swimming species are widespread and include copepods, shrimp, ctenophores, and tomopterid worms to name few. First, using the high-speed recording and planar particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurement, I report on kinematics of fast metachronal swimmer and constructive vortex interactions among its appendages and discuss its implications for improved performance regarding the swimming. Second, I show how hydrodynamic performance of all metachronal swimmers (paramecia, copepods, tomopterid worms, krill etc.) can be scaled by plotting the Reynolds number as a function of Swimming number in the Reynolds number range of 0.1 to 100,000. Then the better performance of this locomotion type compared to undulatory swimming at low Reynolds number regime is discussed. Third, I detail the development of an annular flume to study the schooling behavior of Antarctic krill, a successful metachronal swimmer, under the influence of environmental cues such as flow and light, and show how they behave under these cues. Also, the role of vision and hydrodynamic cues in maintaining the school is discussed. Finally, I conclude this dissertation with unique contributions, limitations, challenges, and recommendations for future work.

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