A Volumetric Imaging System for Reconstruction of Macroscopic Fluid Flows in Organismic Biology

在George Lauder博士的指导下，哈佛大学获得了一笔赠款，用于获得一种体积成像系统，用于有机体生物学中宏观流体流动的三维重建。这些仪器将在三个合作机构（哈佛大学、布朗大学和罗德岛大学）之间共享，以便：(1)分析蝙蝠和鸟类飞行时翅膀和身体运动产生的气流模式，(2)研究鱼类游动时尾迹的水流模式，(3)分析小鲨鱼捕获猎物时的水流模式，(4)研究植物叶片和花朵上方的气流，(5)测量柔性边界附近的非定常压力或剪切驱动的气流。研究由动物运动和猎物捕获引起的空气和水的流动模式是生物力学领域的主要工作。当动物捕捉猎物并在空气和水中移动时，它们会产生复杂的三维流体运动模式，反映出对环境施加的力。了解这些流体运动模式对于揭示控制飞行、游泳和生活在流体中的生物捕获猎物的流体动力学机制至关重要。同样，了解植物的风传粉过程和叶片上空气的运动依赖于复杂的三维植物结构周围空气流量的量化和空气速度的测量。该仪器将通过为生物流体力学研究提供最新技术，直接使目前在主要和次要用户学院实验室的众多研究生受益。三个主要用户教授生物力学的高级本科生研究项目课程（在两个不同的机构），并且在生物流体力学领域做项目的本科生将有机会在他们参与实验室研究项目时使用该设备。

A grant has been awarded to Harvard University under the direction of Dr. George Lauder for the acquisition of a volumetric imaging system for the three-dimensional reconstruction of macroscopic fluid flows in organismic biology. The instrumentation will be shared among three cooperating institutions (Harvard, Brown University, and the University of Rhode Island) to: (1) analyze air flow patterns resulting from wing and body movements of flying bats and birds, (2) study water flow patterns in the wake of swimming fishes, (3) analyze water flow patterns during prey capture by small sharks, (4) study air flow over leaves and flowers of plants, and (5) measure unsteady pressure or shear-driven flows adjacent to flexible boundaries. The study of air and water flow patterns resulting from animal locomotion and prey capture is a major endeavor in the field of biomechanics. As animals capture prey and move through air and water, they generate complex three-dimensional patterns of fluid movement that reflect the application of force to the environment. Understanding these patterns of fluid movement is critical to uncovering the fluid dynamic mechanisms that govern flight, swimming, and the capture of prey by organisms living in fluids. Similarly, understanding the process of wind pollination in plants and the movement of air over leaves is dependent on quantification of air flow and measurement of air velocities around complex three-dimensional plant structures.The instrumentation will benefit directly numerous graduate students currently in the laboratories of the major and minor user faculty by providing them with the latest technology for the study of biological fluid mechanics. Three of the major users teach advanced undergraduate research project classes in biomechanics (at two different institutions), and undergraduates doing projects in the area of biological fluid mechanics will have the opportunity to use this equipment as they participate in laboratory research projects.