WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have determined that some dolphins’ fins generate lift in the same way as delta wing aircraft.
The research was conducted by Laurens Howle and Paul Weber from Duke University, who teamed up with Mark Murray from the United States Naval Academy and Frank Fish from West Chester University, to find out more about the hydrodynamics of whale and dolphin flippers.
Using Computer tomography scanning of the fins of seven different species ranging from the slow swimming Amazon River dolphin and pygmy sperm whale to the super-fast striped dolphin, the team made scaled models of the flippers of each species.
Then, they measured the lift and drag experienced by the flipper at inclinations ranging from -45degrees to +45degrees in a flow tunnel running at a speed that would have been the equivalent of 2m/s for the full scale fin.
Comparing the lift and drag coefficients that the team calculated for each flipper at different inclination angles, they found that the flippers behave like modern engineered aerofoils.
Defining the flippers’ shapes as triangular, swept pointed or swept rounded, the team used computer simulations of the fluid flows around the flippers and found that sweptback flippers generate lift like modern delta wing aircraft.
Calculating the flippers’ efficiencies, the team found that the bottle nose dolphin’s triangular flippers are the most efficient while the harbour porpoise and Atlantic white-sided dolphin’s fins were the least efficient.
Howle and his colleagues will try to find out more about the link between the flippers’ performances and the environment that whales and dolphins negotiate on a daily basis. (ANI)
Filed under Dolphin, News | Tags: Washington | Comment Below
Related?
Secret behind "delta wing" dolphins' speed and agility revealed - partlyJune 21st, 2009 LONDON - US researchers have partly been successful in solving the mystery behind the speed and agility of dolphins and porpoises. They believe the secret can be explained by the mammals' ability to deploy flippers in the same "delta wing" pattern as jet fighters.
Chennai Super Kings beat Nashua DolphinsApril 15th, 2009 DURBAN - Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina struck half-centuries as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) warmed up for the Indian Premier League with a 41-run victory over South African Twenty20 side Nashua Dolphins. CSK opener Patel (51 off 36) and Raina (70 off 41) took the team to a challenging 180 for seven before spinners Muttiah Muralithran (3-32) and R.
Over 100 dolphins washed ashore in northern PhilippinesFebruary 9th, 2009 MANILA - More than 100 dolphins were found stranded at the coast of a northern Philippine town early Tuesday, the local media reported. Bataan provincial governor Enrique Garcia Jr.
Conservation group says about 20 dead Fraser's dolphins wash up on beach in UruguayAugust 19th, 2009 About 20 dead dolphins appear on Uruguay beachMONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — An environmental group says about 20 dead Fraser's dolphins have turned up on a beach in Uruguay. Richard Tessore of SOS-Marine Life Rescue says it isn't clear why the tropical dolphins died in the colder waters off South America's southern Atlantic coast, but some experts theorize they became disoriented or were carried there by changing water currents.
Dolphins 'talk' to each other with tail slapsAugust 4th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have found that dolphins 'talk' to each other with body movements like the slap of a tail, in a form of sign language based on similar rules to human communication. According to a report in the Telegraph, scientists observed dolphins using body 'language' that also included diving and flopping sideways on the surface, in behaviour they believe to be a form of linguistics.
Dolphins found using toolsJanuary 11th, 2009 SYDNEY - After monkeys were spotted cracking nuts with stones and birds were seen using sticks to trick termites out of their mounds, dolphins are the latest to join the ranks of tool using animals. Janet Mann, a biologist at Georgetown University in the US, has catalogued the antics of the bottle nosed dolphin colony at Shark Bay on Australia's west coast.
Mystery shrouds killing of 20 monkeys, Hindus up in arms in UPApril 11th, 2009 BULANDSHAHAR - Hindu activists are up in arms and have vowed not to rest until the culprits involved in the killing of 20 monkeys in Uttar Pradesh are arrested. Describing the mysterious incident, the official sources said on Friday that the farmers were shocked to find gunny bags dumped into their fields stuffed with bodies of monkeys.
Clarification: Fighting Flipper storyJune 29th, 2009 Clarification: Fighting Flipper storyPANAMA CITY, Fla. — In a story June 26, The Associated Press reported that frustrated fishermen are firing guns at bottlenose dolphins that have become increasingly aggressive in taking fish off hooks, and some dolphins have been wounded or killed.
