How Fish swim?

How Fish swim?

TOPIC: Science & Tech

Context- In a new study, researchers at the Harbin Engineering University in China have unravelled the mechanism that drives the fish forward while swimming.

Concept-

• Through precise control of body fluctuations, pressure fields are created in the form of movable vortex pairs of high­ and low pressure regions that enable them to swim.
• This can be explained by physics of fluids
• A fish accelerates when it bends its caudal fin — attached to the vertebral column — to one side and then returns to the neutral position as the fish straightens its body.
• This causes the formation of two vortex cores with low pressure and high pressure regions on opposite sides of the fish.
• The caudal fin used the low pressure area to drive the fluid toward the body and generate a vertical upward pull on the fin.
• The high pressure area pushed the fluid away at the crest and generated an upward thrust on the caudal fin.
• Repetition of this process enabled the fish to move continuously.