When it comes to creating submarines that are more agile and energy-efficient, researchers are taking a tip from stingrays.
The ray-inspired vessels could bring researchers to new ocean depths, and could even aid in rescue missions, a University of Buffalo news release reported.
"Most fish wag their tails to swim. A stingray's swimming is much more unique, like a flag in the wind," Richard Bottom, a UB mechanical engineering graduate student participating in the research, said.
The research team used computational fluid dynamic algorithms to map water vortices flow around the live stingrays as they swam. This is believed to be the first time a front (in front of the body) vortex has been studied underwater.
This phenomenon has been studied in birds and insects before, and was found to be one of the "most important thrust enhancement mechanics in insect flight," the news release reported.
In the sting rays' case, the waves of its body creates "waves" that cause "favorable pressure fields." The exert pressure on the aquatic animal's back, and very little on its front, making for optimal swimming ease. Flying through the water and air are very similar in terms of vortices, so understanding them could help make modern crafts.
"By looking at nature, we can learn from it and come up with new designs for cars, planes and submarines," Iman Borazjani, UB assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, said. "But we're not just mimicking nature. We want to understand the underlying physics for future use in engineering or central designs."
Studies pinpointed stingrays as having the best swimming gait to model a vessel after. The researchers were especially intrigued by the animal's round flat shape.
The team plans to continue researching in hopes of one day making the submarine a reality. Their next steps will be to study the underwater gait of different species of ray.
