Scaling macroscopic aquatic locomotion

Mattia Gazzola, Médéric Argentina, L. Mahadevan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Inertial aquatic swimmers that use undulatory gaits range in length L from a few millimetres to 30 metres, across a wide array of biological taxa. Using elementary hydrodynamic arguments, we uncover a unifying mechanistic principle characterizing their locomotion by deriving a scaling relation that links swimming speed U to body kinematics (tail beat amplitude A and frequency ' ‰) and fluid properties (kinematic viscosity ' 1/2). This principle can be simply couched as the power law Re ' 1/4 Sw where Re = UL/' 1/2 ' ‰' 1 and Sw = ' ‰AL/' 1/2, with = 4/3 for laminar flows, and = 1 for turbulent flows. Existing data from over 1,000 measurements on fish, amphibians, larvae, reptiles, mammals and birds, as well as direct numerical simulations are consistent with our scaling. We interpret our results as the consequence of the convergence of aquatic gaits to the performance limits imposed by hydrodynamics.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)758-761
Number of pages4
JournalNature Physics
Volume10
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2014
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Scaling macroscopic aquatic locomotion'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this