| Summary: | As technological devices advance and become smaller and more efficient, there is a growing research area within ocean engineering to develop small, low-cost autonomous vehicles to be used in swarms or schools, instead of a singular, larger, expensive autonomous vehicle for ocean exploration. As these engineered aquatic devices scale down in size, the Reynolds number of the flow transitions from a well-studied turbulent inertia-dominated regime to a less understood intermediate flow regime where inertial and viscous forces contribute to the characteristics of the flow. The focus of this thesis is to investigate the hydrodynamics of “multi-oar” propulsion at the intermediate flow regime via studying the appendage locomotion in several aquatic organisms. Tomographic Particle Image Velocimetry (tomo-PIV), a robust flow visualization technique, is used to quantify and compare the hydrodynamics of swimming behavior of several species of free-swimming planktonic malacostracan crustaceans, which are seldom-studied but highly maneuverable organisms. This work investigated the hydrodynamics of locomotion of two planktonic crustaceans that are essential in marine ecosystems, Antarctic krill and mysid shrimp, to contribute to the understanding of zooplankton locomotion behavior and flow characteristics of intermediate flow regimes. Understanding the hydrodynamics of zooplankton locomotion leads to an increase in knowledge in three aspects. Planktonic crustaceans are a critical component of marine ecosystem. Hence, understanding more about the hydrodynamics of their locomotion, which involves, feeding, mating, migration, predator avoidance, and swimming behavior, allows for more accurate information available for ocean model prediction and marine ecosystem health. Understanding the hydrodynamics of locomotion in planktonic crustaceans also allows for a more well-rounded understanding of fundamentals of fluid mechanics in the intermediate flow regime. Finally, understanding the flow characteristics of paddling in aquatic ...
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