In this paper, we examined how external flow influenced the feeding behavior and biomechanics of the unicellular Vorticella convallaria, a model organism for sessile suspension feeders. It was an invited paper at the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Check it out here.
Category: biomechanics
Finite element analysis of suction cups (and suction failure too).
I’m still writing this up, but I wanted to share a short video of our recent work modeling suction cups using FEBio, an open-source finite element modeling tool. Check out this biomimetic cuttlefish suction cup:
Using deep reinforcement learning to model storm petrel behaviors
Storm petrels are crazy little oceanic birds that often “hop” on the water’s surface. Nobody knows why. It’s a difficult thing to study–the birds are doing this behavior in the middle of the ocean. Do they perform this behavior to save energy via weight support? Do they use their feet as an “anchor” in high wind? We wanted to know […]