Cool Your Jets: Biological Jet Propulsion in Marine Invertebrates Brad J
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© 2021. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd | Journal of Experimental Biology (2021) 224, jeb222083. doi:10.1242/jeb.222083 REVIEW Cool your jets: biological jet propulsion in marine invertebrates Brad J. Gemmell1,*, John O. Dabiri2, Sean P. Colin3, John H. Costello4, James P. Townsend4 and Kelly R. Sutherland5 ABSTRACT fluid patterns, which make the analyses of resistive forces, such as Pulsatile jet propulsion is a common swimming mode used by a drag, more difficult (Daniel, 1983). An additional consideration that diverse array of aquatic taxa from chordates to cnidarians. This mode makes jet-propelled animals an attractive target for investigation is the of locomotion has interested both biologists and engineers for over a fact that a pulsed jet can result in greater average thrust than a steady century. A central issue to understanding the important features of jet- jet of the same mass flow rate (see Glossary) (Siekmann, 1963; propelling animals is to determine how the animal interacts with the Weihs, 1977; Mohseni et al., 2002; Krueger and Gharib, 2003, 2005). surrounding fluid. Much of our knowledge of aquatic jet propulsion However, to gain a robust understanding of aquatic jet propulsion, it is has come from simple theoretical approximations of both propulsive imperative to consider the wide array of morphological and and resistive forces. Although these models and basic kinematic taxonomic diversity present among jetting swimmers (Fig. 1). This measurements have contributed greatly, they alone cannot provide is a significant challenge because there have been few attempts at the detailed information needed for a comprehensive, mechanistic approaching locomotion questions from a comparative framework. overview of how jet propulsion functions across multiple taxa, size Thus, the primary objective of this Review is to summarize the scales and through development. However, more recently, novel current state of the literature for the major taxonomic groups of jet- experimental tools such as high-speed 2D and 3D particle image propelled swimmers and identify similarities and differences between velocimetry have permitted detailed quantification of the fluid these groups. By providing this information along with a historical dynamics of aquatic jet propulsion. Here, we provide a comparative context of experimental and modeling approaches, we aim to better analysis of a variety of parameters such as efficiency, kinematics and facilitate comparative analyses to aid our understanding of the jet parameters, and review how they can aid our understanding of the principles of aquatic jet propulsion. principles of aquatic jet propulsion. Research on disparate taxa allows comparison of the similarities and differences between them and Measuring and modeling biological jet propulsion contributes to a more robust understanding of aquatic jet propulsion. Two challenges common to almost all biological propulsion in fluids are that the surrounding medium is transparent and the ‘footprints’ of KEY WORDS: Squid, Jellyfish, Salps, Swimming efficiency, Pulsed the organism are transient. The former can be addressed by jets, Particle image velocimetry introducing tracers, e.g. fluorescent dye (Shorten et al., 2005), giving clear visualizations of the impact of the animal on the Introduction surrounding fluid (Fig. 2). The advent of high-speed videography and Animal locomotion and the impact of the fluid environment on the quantitative visualization tools, such as 2D (Bartol et al., 2009a) and evolution of body forms in swimming animals has long been a focus 3D (Gemmell et al., 2015b) particle image velocimetry (PIV; see of evolutionary and functional biologists (e.g. Thompson, 1961; Glossary), has addressed the latter challenge, enabling wake dynamics Vogel, 2013) and, more recently, to those within the field of to be captured in high spatiotemporal resolution (Fig. 2; Box 1). engineering who work on ‘bio-inspired’ designs and focus on As more jet-propelled taxa have been studied, it has become clear marine invertebrate animals (e.g. Villanueva et al., 2011; Gu and that the generic term ‘jet propulsion’ belies a variety of propulsion Guo, 2017; Tang et al., 2020). Pulsatile jet propulsion, the focus of modes much greater than that traditionally associated with engineered this Review, is a common swimming mode employed by a number systems, where the thrust from conventional jet propulsion is of distantly related marine taxa (Fig. 1). idealized as a steady stream of excess rearward momentum. Indeed, Many of these animals have relatively simple shapes and swim some jetters (i.e. certain pelagic tunicates) create a nearly persistent, using few propulsive structures (i.e. control surfaces; see Glossary) rearward efflux of fluid reminiscent of the exhaust from a rocket or jet for locomotion. This has allowed for basic theoretical models of engine (Bone, 1998). This can be modeled based on direct both propulsive and resistive forces to be developed. In contrast, measurements of the jet speed relative to the background flow and animals that swim with predominantly oscillating appendages, such the jet cross-sectional area. Daniel (1983) derived a kinematic as fins, exhibit more complex motions and generate more complex model that eliminated the need to directly measure the flow and that has proved effective in describing the swimming of jet-propelled swimmers whose wakes resemble the steady rearward stream implicit 1Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida in the thrust model (Dabiri and Gharib, 2003). 33620, USA. 2Graduate Aerospace Laboratories and Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California However, a more common occurrence is the periodic ejection of 91125, USA. 3Department of Marine Biology and Environmental Science, Roger pulses of fluid, each of which forms a toroidal ring of fluid, such as a Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island 02809, USA. 4Department of Biology, vortex ring (see Glossary) or tails of vorticity, in the animal’swake. Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island 02918, USA. 5Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA. Organisms that produce the jet in a series of pulsed vortex rings have been observed to generate thrust exceeding that predicted by a steady *Author for correspondence ([email protected]) flow model. The thrust enhancement has been attributed to the vortex B.J.G., 0000-0001-9031-6591; J.H.C., 0000-0002-6967-3145; J.P.T., 0000- formation process and two associated phenomena. The first is a 0002-4782-6083; K.R.S., 0000-0001-6832-6515 transient increase in pressure behind the animal as the jet is initiated. Journal of Experimental Biology 1 REVIEW Journal of Experimental Biology (2021) 224, jeb222083. doi:10.1242/jeb.222083 A Bryozoa B C Brachiopoda Annelida D E Mollusca Nemertea Platyhelminthes F G Chaetognatha Anthropoda Nematoda Tardigrada H I Echinodermata Hemichordata Urochordata Acoela J K Cnidaria Placozoa Protistan Porifera ancestor Ctenophora Fig. 1. Distribution of jet propulsion within the animal kingdom. (A) Three major phyla (highlighted in red) possess jet propelled swimmers. The topology has been broadly adapted from Laumer et al. (2019), with unlabeled limbs representing minor taxa. (B–E) Jet-propelled molluscs include (B) squid, (C) cuttlefish, (D) nautilus and (E) scallop bivalves. (F–K) Urochordate jetters include (F) salps and (G) doliolids. Jet propulsion is widely employed by cnidarians, including (H) cubomedusae, (I) scyphomedusae, (J) solitary hydromedusae and (K) colonial siphonophores. Images in B–K were obtained through Creative Commons Licensing (CC-BY) and image credits in the order presented are as follows: Francois Libert, Brent Moore, Desirae, Dan Hershman, Kelly Sutherland, Richard Kirby, Seascapeza, Jim G, Nathan Rupert and NOAA Photo Library. In mechanical models, this ‘overpressure’ has been found to increase 3D flows would enable the study of jet propulsion in animals with thrust by almost 30% relative to a steady jet (Krueger and Gharib, more complex morphologies, such as siphonophores and other 2003). Second, the vortex rings formed in the wake can interact colonial jetters (see Box 1). (Dabiri et al., 2005), modifying the local pressure field encountered Concurrent with these experimental breakthroughs has been a by the animal and the resulting thrust (Gemmell et al., 2021). dramatic increase in computational power, which enables the Models that explicitly incorporate vortex ring formation are simulation of 3D self-propelled analogs to the real swimmers necessarily more complex and are often incompatible with simple (Box 1). These numerical simulations are a powerful complement to equations relating the animal’s kinematics to the resulting empirical investigations, as they provide controlled tests of locomotive forces [for a more in-depth description and example, swimmer designs found in nature and of those that are not extant see Dabiri et al. (2006), equation 11]. However, the inclusion of (Mohseni, 2006; Sahin et al., 2009). Finally, these techniques have vortex dynamics does enable pulsatile jet-propelled swimmers to be now evolved to a stage in which muscle contraction can be directly modeled as accurately as their simpler steady-jet counterparts. represented in the computational models (Hoover et al., 2019). This In the past decade, advances in both experimental and presents new opportunities to understand the evolutionary