Undulating Seal Whiskers Evolved Optimal Wavelength‐to‐Diameter Ratio for Efficient Reduction in Vortex‐Induced Vibrations (Adv. Sci. 2/2024)
Seals are well-known for their remarkable hydrodynamic trail-following capabilities made possible by undulating flow-sensing whiskers that enable the seals to detect fish swimming as far as 180 m away. In this work, the form-function relationship in the undulating whiskers of two different phocid se...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Wiley
2024
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/155052 |
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author | Kamat, Amar M. Zheng, Xingwen Bos, Julian Cao, Ming Triantafyllou, Michael S. Kottapalli, Ajay Giri Prakash |
author_facet | Kamat, Amar M. Zheng, Xingwen Bos, Julian Cao, Ming Triantafyllou, Michael S. Kottapalli, Ajay Giri Prakash |
author_sort | Kamat, Amar M. |
collection | MIT |
description | Seals are well-known for their remarkable hydrodynamic trail-following capabilities made possible by undulating flow-sensing whiskers that enable the seals to detect fish swimming as far as 180 m away. In this work, the form-function relationship in the undulating whiskers of two different phocid seal species, viz. harbor and gray seals, is studied. The geometry and material properties of excised harbor and grey seal whiskers are systematically characterized using blue light 3D scanning, optical and scanning electron microscopy, and nanoindentation. The effect of the undulating geometry on the whiskers’ vibration in uniform water flow is studied using both experimental (piezoelectric MEMS and 3D-printed piezoresistive sensors developed in-house) and numerical (finite element method) techniques. The results indicate that the dimensionless ratio of undulation wavelength to mean whisker diameter (λ/Dm) in phocid seals may have evolved to be in the optimal range of 4.4–4.6, enabling an order-of-magnitude reduction in vortex-induced vibrations (compared to a similarly-shaped circular cylinder) and, consequently, an enhanced flow sensing capability with minimal self-induced noise. The results highlight the importance of the dimensionless λ/Dm ratio in the biomimetic design of seal whisker-inspired vibration-resistant structures, such as marine risers and wake detection sensors for submarines. |
first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:50:45Z |
format | Article |
id | mit-1721.1/155052 |
institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:50:45Z |
publishDate | 2024 |
publisher | Wiley |
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spelling | mit-1721.1/1550522024-05-25T03:43:27Z Undulating Seal Whiskers Evolved Optimal Wavelength‐to‐Diameter Ratio for Efficient Reduction in Vortex‐Induced Vibrations (Adv. Sci. 2/2024) Kamat, Amar M. Zheng, Xingwen Bos, Julian Cao, Ming Triantafyllou, Michael S. Kottapalli, Ajay Giri Prakash Seals are well-known for their remarkable hydrodynamic trail-following capabilities made possible by undulating flow-sensing whiskers that enable the seals to detect fish swimming as far as 180 m away. In this work, the form-function relationship in the undulating whiskers of two different phocid seal species, viz. harbor and gray seals, is studied. The geometry and material properties of excised harbor and grey seal whiskers are systematically characterized using blue light 3D scanning, optical and scanning electron microscopy, and nanoindentation. The effect of the undulating geometry on the whiskers’ vibration in uniform water flow is studied using both experimental (piezoelectric MEMS and 3D-printed piezoresistive sensors developed in-house) and numerical (finite element method) techniques. The results indicate that the dimensionless ratio of undulation wavelength to mean whisker diameter (λ/Dm) in phocid seals may have evolved to be in the optimal range of 4.4–4.6, enabling an order-of-magnitude reduction in vortex-induced vibrations (compared to a similarly-shaped circular cylinder) and, consequently, an enhanced flow sensing capability with minimal self-induced noise. The results highlight the importance of the dimensionless λ/Dm ratio in the biomimetic design of seal whisker-inspired vibration-resistant structures, such as marine risers and wake detection sensors for submarines. 2024-05-24T15:19:17Z 2024-05-24T15:19:17Z 2024-01 2024-05-24T15:14:03Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2198-3844 2198-3844 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/155052 Kamat, A.M., Zheng, X., Bos, J., Cao, M., Triantafyllou, M.S. and Kottapalli, A.G.P. (2024), Undulating Seal Whiskers Evolved Optimal Wavelength-to-Diameter Ratio for Efficient Reduction in Vortex-Induced Vibrations (Adv. Sci. 2/2024). Adv. Sci., 11: 2470012. en 10.1002/advs.202470012 Advanced Science Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Wiley Wiley |
spellingShingle | Kamat, Amar M. Zheng, Xingwen Bos, Julian Cao, Ming Triantafyllou, Michael S. Kottapalli, Ajay Giri Prakash Undulating Seal Whiskers Evolved Optimal Wavelength‐to‐Diameter Ratio for Efficient Reduction in Vortex‐Induced Vibrations (Adv. Sci. 2/2024) |
title | Undulating Seal Whiskers Evolved Optimal Wavelength‐to‐Diameter Ratio for Efficient Reduction in Vortex‐Induced Vibrations (Adv. Sci. 2/2024) |
title_full | Undulating Seal Whiskers Evolved Optimal Wavelength‐to‐Diameter Ratio for Efficient Reduction in Vortex‐Induced Vibrations (Adv. Sci. 2/2024) |
title_fullStr | Undulating Seal Whiskers Evolved Optimal Wavelength‐to‐Diameter Ratio for Efficient Reduction in Vortex‐Induced Vibrations (Adv. Sci. 2/2024) |
title_full_unstemmed | Undulating Seal Whiskers Evolved Optimal Wavelength‐to‐Diameter Ratio for Efficient Reduction in Vortex‐Induced Vibrations (Adv. Sci. 2/2024) |
title_short | Undulating Seal Whiskers Evolved Optimal Wavelength‐to‐Diameter Ratio for Efficient Reduction in Vortex‐Induced Vibrations (Adv. Sci. 2/2024) |
title_sort | undulating seal whiskers evolved optimal wavelength to diameter ratio for efficient reduction in vortex induced vibrations adv sci 2 2024 |
url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/155052 |
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