Reasonance and Margin Flexibility Upon A Modeled Oblate Jellyfish (2015)

Undergraduates: Antonio Porras, Alexander Hoover

Faculty Advisor: Laura Miller
Department: Mathematics

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To further explore how jellyfish optimize their swimming, we analyzed the role of flexibility in jellyfish jet propulsion using computational fluid dynamics. Flexibility has been shown to play a role in propulsion throughout the animal kingdom when examining it in context with resonance phenomenon. In our study, we explored Reynolds number effects on the resonance properties of the bell, and we focused on how flexible oblate bells optimize jellyfish propulsion. We used the Immerse Boundary Method to simulate jellyfish flow movement to measure its vertical velocity, resonant frequencies, bell elasticity and viscosity. Jellyfish have been shown to tune their swimming movement to the resonant frequency of their bell (DeMont and Gosline, 1987). More recently, work has been done to show how flexibility at the bell margin influences propulsion in oblate jellyfish (Colin et al, 2013). Our study concluded that for high viscous environments, the resonant frequency of the bell increases and as the stiffness of the bell increases, so does its natural frequency.