Wavy Whiskers in Wakes: Explaining the Trail‐Tracking Capabilities of Whisker Arrays on Seal Muzzles
Abstract Seals can detect prey up to 180 m away using only their flow‐sensing whiskers. The unique undulating morphology of Phocid seal whiskers reduces vortex‐induced vibrations (VIVs), rendering seals highly sensitive to biologically relevant flow stimuli. In this work, digital models of harbor an...
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crwiley:10.1002/advs.202203062 2024-06-23T07:53:30+00:00 Wavy Whiskers in Wakes: Explaining the Trail‐Tracking Capabilities of Whisker Arrays on Seal Muzzles Zheng, Xingwen Kamat, Amar M. Cao, Ming Kottapalli, Ajay Giri Prakash European Research Council 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202203062 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/advs.202203062 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/advs.202203062 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Advanced Science volume 10, issue 2 ISSN 2198-3844 2198-3844 journal-article 2022 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202203062 2024-06-06T04:24:12Z Abstract Seals can detect prey up to 180 m away using only their flow‐sensing whiskers. The unique undulating morphology of Phocid seal whiskers reduces vortex‐induced vibrations (VIVs), rendering seals highly sensitive to biologically relevant flow stimuli. In this work, digital models of harbor and grey seal whiskers are extracted using 3D scanning and a mathematical framework that accurately recreates their undulating geometry is proposed. Through fluid–structure interaction studies and experimental investigations involving a whisker array mounted on 3D‐printed microelectromechanical systems sensors, the vibration characteristics of the whisker array and the interaction between neighboring whiskers in steady flows and fish‐wake‐like vortices are explained for the first time. Results reveal that the downstream vortices intensity and resulting VIVs are consistently lower for grey than harbor seal whiskers and a smooth cylinder, suggesting that the grey seal whisker geometry can be an ideal template for the biomimetic design of VIV‐resistant underwater structures. In addition, neighboring whiskers in an array influence one another by resulting in greater flow vorticity fluctuation and distribution area, thus causing increased vibrations than an isolated whisker, which indicates the possibility of a signal‐strengthening effect in whisker arrays. Article in Journal/Newspaper harbor seal Wiley Online Library Advanced Science 10 2 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Seals can detect prey up to 180 m away using only their flow‐sensing whiskers. The unique undulating morphology of Phocid seal whiskers reduces vortex‐induced vibrations (VIVs), rendering seals highly sensitive to biologically relevant flow stimuli. In this work, digital models of harbor and grey seal whiskers are extracted using 3D scanning and a mathematical framework that accurately recreates their undulating geometry is proposed. Through fluid–structure interaction studies and experimental investigations involving a whisker array mounted on 3D‐printed microelectromechanical systems sensors, the vibration characteristics of the whisker array and the interaction between neighboring whiskers in steady flows and fish‐wake‐like vortices are explained for the first time. Results reveal that the downstream vortices intensity and resulting VIVs are consistently lower for grey than harbor seal whiskers and a smooth cylinder, suggesting that the grey seal whisker geometry can be an ideal template for the biomimetic design of VIV‐resistant underwater structures. In addition, neighboring whiskers in an array influence one another by resulting in greater flow vorticity fluctuation and distribution area, thus causing increased vibrations than an isolated whisker, which indicates the possibility of a signal‐strengthening effect in whisker arrays. |
author2 |
European Research Council |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zheng, Xingwen Kamat, Amar M. Cao, Ming Kottapalli, Ajay Giri Prakash |
spellingShingle |
Zheng, Xingwen Kamat, Amar M. Cao, Ming Kottapalli, Ajay Giri Prakash Wavy Whiskers in Wakes: Explaining the Trail‐Tracking Capabilities of Whisker Arrays on Seal Muzzles |
author_facet |
Zheng, Xingwen Kamat, Amar M. Cao, Ming Kottapalli, Ajay Giri Prakash |
author_sort |
Zheng, Xingwen |
title |
Wavy Whiskers in Wakes: Explaining the Trail‐Tracking Capabilities of Whisker Arrays on Seal Muzzles |
title_short |
Wavy Whiskers in Wakes: Explaining the Trail‐Tracking Capabilities of Whisker Arrays on Seal Muzzles |
title_full |
Wavy Whiskers in Wakes: Explaining the Trail‐Tracking Capabilities of Whisker Arrays on Seal Muzzles |
title_fullStr |
Wavy Whiskers in Wakes: Explaining the Trail‐Tracking Capabilities of Whisker Arrays on Seal Muzzles |
title_full_unstemmed |
Wavy Whiskers in Wakes: Explaining the Trail‐Tracking Capabilities of Whisker Arrays on Seal Muzzles |
title_sort |
wavy whiskers in wakes: explaining the trail‐tracking capabilities of whisker arrays on seal muzzles |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202203062 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/advs.202203062 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/advs.202203062 |
genre |
harbor seal |
genre_facet |
harbor seal |
op_source |
Advanced Science volume 10, issue 2 ISSN 2198-3844 2198-3844 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202203062 |
container_title |
Advanced Science |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
2 |
_version_ |
1802645190080462848 |