Speed limits on swimming of fishes and cetaceans.
Physical limits on swimming speed of lunate tail propelled aquatic animals are proposed. A hydrodynamic analysis, applying experimental data wherever possible, is used to show that small swimmers (roughly less than a metre long) are limited by the available power, while larger swimmers at a few metres below the water surface are limited by cavitation. Depending on the caudal fin cross-section, 10-15 m s(-1) is shown to be the maximum cavitation-free velocity for all swimmers at a shallow depth.
Iosilevskii
G
G
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel. igil@aerodyne.technion.ac.il
Weihs
D
D
D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002591:Cetacea / Q000502:physiology*; D005399:Fishes / Q000502:physiology*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*; D013623:Tail / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology