Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Green’s Research Helps Navy Design Vessels That Swim

Monday, October 13, 2014, By Matt Wheeler
Share
College of Engineering and Computer Scienceresearch

Few things move with the agility or grace of a fish. Using subtle, waving movements, they slip silently through water. Yet, look closely and you can see that not all fish swim alike. Great white sharks with forked tails are built for bursts of speed. Serpentine eels have the ability to change direction on a dime. Tunas have a streamlined form that allows them to travel smoothly for long distances. The differences in their bodies and fins, developed over eons of evolutionary pressure, give them disparate abilities to move through the water.

Melissa Green in her lab

Melissa Green in her lab

The effective swimming methods of fish and other aquatic animals are the inspiration for the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Biologically Inspired Underwater Propulsion Program. The program aims to create underwater vessels that mimic, and even improve upon, the movement of underwater wildlife. As part of this program, Melissa Green, assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, has been awarded a three-year, $650,000 grant for her work on “Lagrangian methods in unsteady propulsion: characterizing vortex wake structure and force production.” Green specializes in the area of fundamental fluid dynamics, specifically vortex dynamics and bio-inspired propulsion

Of all the features that affect fish movement, the flapping of the tail, or caudal fin, is one of the most important. This is where Green and her research team come in. In a water channel in her lab at the Syracuse Center of Excellence (CoE), she will experiment with a rigid piece of thin plastic that is equipped to move side to side at different speeds, just like a caudal fin, as gallons of water flow around it. Green will measure the force on the plastic flapping fin and observe the swirling water that the swish of the plastic tail leaves behind.

A visualization of the analysis on a trapezoidal panel—the model of caudal fin flapping

A visualization of the analysis on a trapezoidal panel—the model of caudal fin flapping

Green explains, “Even with a simulated caudal fin so simple and at a low amplitude of flapping, you get flow dynamics that are really three dimensional, rich and complex. I use Langrangian coherent structures to look at this swirling water the flapping creates, known as vortex streets. Vortex streets are like a signature of what happens when the fin interacts with the water. You can tell if the structure of the wake propulsion was created efficiently or not. With this grant, our job is to characterize and quantitatively map these structures to the actuation used to create them, and to the measured propulsive performance. The long-term goal is to be able to choose to make a wake that looks like what we know is an efficient wake, or a powerful wake, or a ‘sharp right turn,’ and then we can start stitching actuation together for more complex motion planning.”

This research will inform the design and control strategies for a range of underwater vehicle applications—primarily small, unmanned vessels. Green’s work will help ONR determine what it takes to make a vehicle with quick, powerful bursts of speed, travel long distances, using very little energy, or be able to maneuver and change direction suddenly. Through the research of Green’s labs and the ONR’s Biologically Inspired Underwater Propulsion Program, man-made “fish” may eventually out-swim the genuine article.

  • Author

Matt Wheeler

  • Recent
  • Eugene ‘Gene’ Anderson to Depart Syracuse, Tapped to Lead University of Pittsburgh’s Business School
    Thursday, May 26, 2022, By News Staff
  • Newhouse Creative Advertising Students Win 195 Awards in 1 Year, Setting a New School Record
    Thursday, May 26, 2022, By News Staff
  • “Syracuse University to rename the Carrier Dome – what name would fans choose?”
    Wednesday, May 25, 2022, By Lily Datz
  • Digital Badges at Syracuse University: Recognizing and Authenticating Microcredential Moments in Higher Education
    Wednesday, May 25, 2022, By Lyndy McLaughlin
  • Social Work Student Bre’Yona Montalvo Receives First Sunflower Scholarship
    Wednesday, May 25, 2022, By Matt Michael

More In STEM

Matt Cufari Named as a 2022-23 Astronaut Scholar

Matt Cufari, a senior physics major in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, a Coronat Scholar and a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program, has…

Dean Rajiv ‘Raj’ Dewan to Step Down as Dean of the School of Information Studies

Rajiv “Raj” Dewan, dean of the School of Information Studies, has announced he will conclude his deanship on June 30, 2022. Dewan plans to return to full-time faculty duties while continuing his research. David Seaman, dean of Syracuse University Libraries…

Biology and Earth and Environmental Sciences Departments Come Together on Diversity and Engagement Initiatives

In 1948, Professor James Hope Birnie became Syracuse University’s first African American faculty member in biology, teaching here until 1951. He was also one of its first biology faculty members to be supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)….

Black Hole Image Shows Einstein Was Right, Once Again

Today a team of astronomers announced they successfully captured the first direct image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Duncan Brown is the Charles Brightman Endowed Professor of Physics at Syracuse University’s College of…

Biomedical and Chemical Engineering Professor’s Research Team Receives Multiple Awards at Society for Biomaterials Conference

Biomedical and chemical engineering Professor Mary Beth Monroe attended the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) 2022 meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, with Ph.D. students Anand Vakil, Henry Beaman, Changling Du and Maryam Ramezani, master’s student Natalie Petryk ’21, G’22 and undergraduate students Caitlyn…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2022 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.