We describe the development of a Self-Contained Underwater Velocimetry Apparatus (SCUVA) that enables a single SCUBA diver to make in situ digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) measurements of animal-fluid interactions in real time. The device is demonstrated in a study of the dynamics of Aurelia labiata jellyfish swimming in the coastal waters of Long Beach, California. We analyze the DPIV...

ABSTRACT Flying snakes flatten their body to form a roughly triangular cross-sectional shape, enabling lift production and horizontal acceleration. While gliding, they also assume an S-shaped posture, which could promote aerodynamic interactions between the fore aft body. Such have been studied experimentally; however, very coarse models of snake's shape were used, effects measured only for dow...

Reconstructing the vortex wake of freely flying birds is challenging, but in the past few years, direct measurements of the wake circulation have become available for a number of species. Streamwise circulation has been measured at different positions along the span of the birds, but no measurements have been performed in the transverse plane. Recent findings from studies of bat wakes have poin...

Zooplankton swimming near the substratum experience boundary layer flow that is characterized by steep velocity gradients and turbulence. How do small swimming organisms navigate flows at this interface to forage and interact with mates? To address this question, we collected field measurements of the swimming behavior of the marine ostracod Paravargula trifax near complex living substrata, whi...

The creeping flow of a dilute (0.025 wt%) monodisperse polystyrene/polystyrene Boger fluid through a 4 : 1 : 4 axisymmetric contraction/expansion is experimentally observed for a wide range of Deborah numbers. Pressure drop measurements across the orifice plate show a large extra pressure drop that increases monotonically with Deborah number above the value observed for a similar Newtonian flui...

The design of future large optical telescopes must take into account the wind-induced buffeting of the telescope structure caused by large-scale flow structures and turbulence inside the dome. However, estimating the resulting degradation in image quality is difficult due to our relatively poor understanding of the flow inside the dome. Data has been collected in a scaled wind-tunnel test of a ...

Time-resolved DPIV measurements performed in wall parallel planes at several wall normal locations in a turbulent boundary layer (TBL) are used to illuminate the distribution of wall parallel velocities in a three-dimensional energy spectrum over streamwise, spanwise, and temporal wavelengths. To our knowledge, this is the rst time this type of spectral distribution has been reported. Slices of...

A major goal in organismal biology is to understand how form and function relate to one another, and the scaling of organismal performance has been instrumental in understanding the mechanistic links between the changes in form, function and ecology that occur as organisms grow. In this study, we used digital Particle Imaging Velocity (dPIV) to investigate the scaling of suction-induced flow sp...