Rahul Bale

Undulating fins produce off-axis thrust and flow structures

While wake structures of many forms of swimming and flying are well characterized, the wake generated by a freely swimming undulating fin has not yet been analyzed. These elongated fins allow fish to achieve enhanced agility exemplified by the forward, backward and vertical swimming capabilities of knifefish, and also have potential applications in the design of more maneuverable underwater vehicles. We present the flow structure of an undulating robotic fin model using particle image velocimetry to measure fluid velocity fields in the wake. We supplement the experimental robotic work with high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics, simulating the hydrodynamics of both a virtual fish, whose fin kinematics and fin plus body morphology are measured from a freely swimming knifefish, and a virtual rendering of our robot. Our results indicate that a series of linked vortex tubes is shed off the long edge of the fin as the undulatory wave travels lengthwise along the fin. A jet at an oblique angle to the fin is associated with the successive vortex tubes, propelling the fish forward. The vortex structure bears similarity to the linked vortex ring structure trailing the oscillating caudal fin of a carangiform swimmer, though the vortex rings are distorted because of the undulatory kinematics of the elongated fin.

Energy efficiency and allometry of movement of swimming and flying animals

Significance Is a whale or a tuna more efficient? The answer depends on the definition of efficiency. If one uses cost of transport, defined as the energy required to move unit distance, then the tuna wins. If energy of transporting unit mass over unit distance is used then the whale wins. We address this ambiguity by rationally deriving a new efficiency measure called the energy-consumption coefficient (CE), which is a nondimensional measure of fuel consumption. CE is a fundamental metric to quantify efficiency of self-propelled bodies analogous to the drag coefficient (Cd) to quantify aerodynamic shapes of vehicles. The analysis also leads to allometric scalings of frequency and velocity of swimming and flying organisms over more than 20 orders of magnitude of mass. Which animals use their energy better during movement? One metric to answer this question is the energy cost per unit distance per unit weight. Prior data show that this metric decreases with mass, which is considered to imply that massive animals are more efficient. Although useful, this metric also implies that two dynamically equivalent animals of different sizes will not be considered equally efficient. We resolve this longstanding issue by first determining the scaling of energy cost per unit distance traveled. The scale is found to be M2/3 or M1/2, where M is the animal mass. Second, we introduce an energy-consumption coefficient (CE) defined as energy per unit distance traveled divided by this scale. CE is a measure of efficiency of swimming and flying, analogous to how drag coefficient quantifies aerodynamic drag on vehicles. Derivation of the energy-cost scale reveals that the assumption that undulatory swimmers spend energy to overcome drag in the direction of swimming is inappropriate. We derive allometric scalings that capture trends in data of swimming and flying animals over 10–20 orders of magnitude by mass. The energy-consumption coefficient reveals that swimmers beyond a critical mass, and most fliers are almost equally efficient as if they are dynamically equivalent; increasingly massive animals are not more efficient according to the proposed metric. Distinct allometric scalings are discovered for large and small swimmers. Flying animals are found to require relatively more energy compared with swimmers.

Convergent evolution of mechanically optimal locomotion in aquatic invertebrates and vertebrates.

Examples of animals evolving similar traits despite the absence of that trait in the last common ancestor, such as the wing and camera-type lens eye in vertebrates and invertebrates, are called cases of convergent evolution. Instances of convergent evolution of locomotory patterns that quantitatively agree with the mechanically optimal solution are very rare. Here, we show that, with respect to a very diverse group of aquatic animals, a mechanically optimal method of swimming with elongated fins has evolved independently at least eight times in both vertebrate and invertebrate swimmers across three different phyla. Specifically, if we take the length of an undulation along an animal’s fin during swimming and divide it by the mean amplitude of undulations along the fin length, the result is consistently around twenty. We call this value the optimal specific wavelength (OSW). We show that the OSW maximizes the force generated by the body, which also maximizes swimming speed. We hypothesize a mechanical basis for this optimality and suggest reasons for its repeated emergence through evolution.

Separability of drag and thrust in undulatory animals and machines

For nearly a century, researchers have tried to understand the swimming of aquatic animals in terms of a balance between the forward thrust from swimming movements and drag on the body. Prior approaches have failed to provide a separation of these two forces for undulatory swimmers such as lamprey and eels, where most parts of the body are simultaneously generating drag and thrust. We nonetheless show that this separation is possible, and delineate its fundamental basis in undulatory swimmers. Our approach unifies a vast diversity of undulatory aquatic animals (anguilliform, sub-carangiform, gymnotiform, bal-istiform, rajiform) and provides design principles for highly agile bioinspired underwater vehicles. This approach has practical utility within biology as well as engineering. It is a predictive tool for use in understanding the role of the mechanics of movement in the evolutionary emergence of morphological features relating to locomotion. For example, we demonstrate that the drag-thrust separation framework helps to predict the observed height of the ribbon fin of electric knifefish, a diverse group of neotropical fish which are an important model system in sensory neurobiology. We also show how drag-thrust separation leads to models that can predict the swimming velocity of an organism or a robotic vehicle.

Gray's paradox: A fluid mechanical perspective

Nearly eighty years ago, Gray reported that the drag power experienced by a dolphin was larger than the estimated muscle power – this is termed as Grays paradox. We provide a fluid mechanical perspective of this paradox. The viewpoint that swimmers necessarily spend muscle energy to overcome drag in the direction of swimming needs revision. For example, in undulatory swimming most of the muscle energy is directly expended to generate lateral undulations of the body, and the drag power is balanced not by the muscle power but by the thrust power. Depending on drag model utilized, the drag power may be greater than muscle power without being paradoxical.

Optimal specific wavelength for maximum thrust production in undulatory propulsion

What wavelengths do undulatory swimmers use during propulsion? In this work we find that a wide range of body/caudal fin (BCF) swimmers, from larval zebrafish and herring to fully–grown eels, use specific wavelength (ratio of wavelength to tail amplitude of undulation) values that fall within a relatively narrow range. The possible emergence of this constraint is interrogated using numerical simulations of fluid–structure interaction. Based on these, it was found that there is an optimal specific wavelength (OSW) that maximizes the swimming speed and thrust generated by an undulatory swimmer. The observed values of specific wavelength for BCF animals are relatively close to this OSW. The mechanisms underlying the maximum propulsive thrust for BCF swimmers are quantified and are found to be consistent with the mechanisms hypothesized in prior work. The adherence to an optimal value of specific wavelength in most natural hydrodynamic propulsors gives rise to empirical design criteria for man–made propulsors.

Hydrodynamic optimality of balistiform and gymnotiform locomotion

Abstract Some groups of fish have evolved to generate propulsion using undulatory elongated fins while maintaining a relatively rigid body. The fins run along the body axis and can be dorsal, ventral, dorsoventral pairs or left-right pairs. These fish are termed as median/paired fin (MPF) swimmers. The movement of these groups of fish was studied in an influential series of papers by Lighthill and Blake. In this work, we revisit this problem by performing direct numerical simulations. We interrogate two issues. First, we investigate and explain a key morphological feature, which is the diagonal fin insertion found in many MPF swimmers such as the knifefish. Not only are these results of biological relevance, but these are also useful in engineering to design bioinspired highly maneuverable underwater vehicles. Second, we investigate whether there is a mechanical advantage in the form of reduced cost of transport (COT) (energy spent per unit distance traveled) for not undulating the entire body. We find that a rigid body attached to an undulating fin leads to a reduced COT.

Dynamic Load Balancing for Large-Scale Multiphysics Simulations

In parallel computing load balancing is an essential component of any efficient and scalable simulation code. Static data decomposition methods have proven to work well for symmetric workloads. But, in today’s multiphysics simulations, with asymmetric workloads, this imbalance prevents good scalability on future generation of parallel architectures. We present our work on developing a general dynamic load balancing framework for multiphysics simulations on hierarchical Cartesian meshes. Using a weighted dual graph based workload estimation and constrained multilevel graph partitioning, the required runtime for industrial applications could be reduced by 40\(\%\) of the runtime, running on the K computer.

Analytical solutions for algebraic growth of disturbances in a stably stratified shear flow

We investigate analytically the short-time response of disturbances in a density-varying Couette flow without viscous and diffusive effects. The complete inviscid problem is also solved as an initial value problem with a density perturbation. We show that the kinetic energy of the disturbances grows algebraically at early times, contrary to the well-known algebraic decay at time tending to infinity. This growth can persist for arbitrarily long times in response to sharp enough initial perturbations. The simplest in our three-stage study is a model problem forced by a buoyancy perturbation in the absence of background stratification. A linear growth with time is obtained in the vertical velocity component. This model provides an analogy between the transient mechanism of kinetic energy growth in a two-dimensional density-varying flow and the lift-up mechanism of the three-dimensional constant density flow. Next we consider weak stable background stratification. Interestingly, the lowest order solution here is the same as that of the model flow. Our final study shows that a strong background stratification results in a sub-linear growth with time of the perturbation. A framework is thus presented where two-dimensional streamwise disturbances can lead to large transient amplification, unlike in constant density flow where three dimensions are required.