Manta rays propel themselves by combining oscillating and undulating motions of flexible surfaces. We describe two experiments to study the effects of excitation and flexibility on the wake flowfield: experiments on undulating and flapping three-dimensional fins of elliptical planform, and experiments on pitching two-dimensional panels of rectangular planform with varying flexibility. To interpret the results on thrust and efficiency, we propose scalings for aspect ratio and flexibility, and develop a stability analysis called wake resonance theory. Here we focus on the insights provided by wake resonance theory.
CITATION STYLE
Smits, A. J., Moored, K. W., & Dewey, P. A. (2014). The swimming of manta rays. In Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering (Vol. 8, pp. 291–300). Springer Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40371-2_43
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