Wind Power Generators | Solving Engineering Issues By Studying Jellyfish
Jellyfish create doughnut-shaped currents of rotating water when they swim. Visually, they resemble what happens when someone blows smoke rings from a cigar.
More importantly, however, this unusual method of propulsion, these so-called “vortex rings,” enable jellyfish to go further on less energy, an idea that scientists hope to translate into new engineering designs.
“We’re very interested in figuring out things that animals do better than we, as engineers, can do,” said John Dabiri, professor of aeronautics and bioengineering at California Institute of Technology , who is heading the project. “We’d like to co-opt some of those ideas.”
In particular, they want to build new underwater research vehicles that can remain beneath the ocean surface for years at a time, rather than only hours or months, and on less fuel.
“It is important to have underwater vehicles that can study the changing properties of the ocean, such as temperature and pH, so we can improve our knowledge of the ocean and how it works,” said Dabiri, who recently was among those named to receive a prestigious $500,000 MacArthur “genius’’ award, a “no-strings attached’’ fellowship. “This is especially important in trying to understand the impact of climate change on the ocean.”
Jellyfish propel themselves by contracting cells in their bell-shaped outer skin and generating jet forces in the tail end, with tentacles trailing behind. “Pretty much all underwater swimmers create these vortex structures, but theirs are a lot more complicated [than jellyfish] in flow currents,” Dabiri said. “Their rings are jumbled together in ways more difficult to measure.”
Beyond inspiring new energy-saving underwater technology, understanding the fluid dynamics of the jellyfish also ultimately could provide important information applicable to other related areas, such as blood flow in the human heart or the design of wind power generators.
-Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation
