Title:
Simulation and theoretical study of swimming and resistive forces within granular media

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dc.contributor.advisor Goldman, Daniel I.
dc.contributor.author Ding, Yang en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Cvitanovic, Predrag
dc.contributor.committeeMember Hu, David
dc.contributor.committeeMember Kim, Harold
dc.contributor.committeeMember Wiesenfeld, Kurt
dc.contributor.department Physics en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2013-01-17T21:52:16Z
dc.date.available 2013-01-17T21:52:16Z
dc.date.issued 2011-11-14 en_US
dc.description.abstract Understanding animal locomotion requires modeling the interaction of the organism with its environment. Locomotion within granular media like sand, soil, and debris that display both solid and fluid-like behavior in response to stress is less studied than locomotion within fluids or on solid ground. To begin to reveal the secrets of movement in sand, I developed models to explain the subsurface locomotion of the sand-swimming sandfish lizard. I developed a resistive force theory (RFT) with empirical force laws to explain the swimming speed observed in animal experiments. By varying the amplitude of the undulation in the RFT, I found that the range of amplitude used by the animal predicted the optimal swimming speed. I developed a numerical model of the sandfish coupled to a discrete element method simulation of the granular medium to test assumptions in the RFT and to study more detailed mechanics of sand-swimming. Inspired by the shovel-shaped head of the sandfish lizard, I used the simulation to study lift forces in granular media: I found that when a submerged intruder moved at a constant speed within a granular medium it experienced a lift force whose sign and magnitude depended on the intruder shape. The principles learned from the models guided the development of a biologically inspired robot that swam within granular media with similar performance to the lizard. en_US
dc.description.degree PhD en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/45880
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Lift en_US
dc.subject Granular media en_US
dc.subject Simulation en_US
dc.subject Resistive force en_US
dc.subject Locomotion en_US
dc.subject Swimming en_US
dc.subject Sandfish en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Animal locomotion
dc.subject.lcsh Granular materials
dc.title Simulation and theoretical study of swimming and resistive forces within granular media en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Dissertation
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Goldman, Daniel I.
local.contributor.corporatename College of Sciences
local.contributor.corporatename School of Physics
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication c4e864bd-2915-429f-a778-a6439e3ef775
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 85042be6-2d68-4e07-b384-e1f908fae48a
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 2ba39017-11f1-40f4-9bc5-66f17b8f1539
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