High-speed recirculating water flume

岩石潮间带是一个水动力压力的栖息地，在那里，破碎的海浪对潮间带生物施加了巨大的阻力。尽管有这样的逆境，被海浪冲刷的海藻在这样的条件下茁壮成长，成功地产生了各种形态多样的叶子，这些叶子“随流而动”，弯曲和改变形状以减少阻力。然而，我们对海藻所经历的阻力和柔性叶片在海浪中的行为的理解受到我们在实验室中重现高速环境相关流动的能力的限制。本提案中要求的资金是购买一个高速循环水水槽，产生高达4米/秒的实验速度。拟议的水槽由透明丙烯酸制成，以便在所有流速下都能显示试件。因此，安装在拟议水槽上的力传感器和数码相机将允许研究人员同时量化阻力和高速时柔性叶的行为。这些数据将用于估计潮间带海藻的大小和生长的机械极限，并探索阻力在海藻形态进化中的选择性作用。此外，拟议的水槽将用于研究鱼类在极端水流中的游泳性能和须鲸摄食的生物力学。

The rocky intertidal zone is a hydrodynamically stressful habitat, where breaking waves impose tremendous drag forces on intertidal inhabitants. Despite this adversity, wave-swept seaweeds thrive under these conditions, successfully producing a wide range of morphologically diverse fronds that "go with the flow," bending over and changing shape to reduce drag. However, our understanding of the drag force experienced by seaweeds and the behavior of flexible fronds in the surf has been limited by our ability to recreate high-speed environmentally-relevant flow in the lab. The funding requested in this proposal is to purchase a high-speed recirculating water flume that generates experimental velocities up to 4 m/s. The proposed flume is constructed of clear acrylic to enable the visualization of test specimens at all flow velocities. Force transducers and digital cameras mounted to the proposed flume will thereby permit researchers to simultaneously quantify drag force and behavior of flexible fronds at high speed. These data will be used to estimate mechanical limits to size and growth of intertidal seaweeds and to explore the selective role of drag in the evolution of seaweed morphology. In addition, the proposed flume will be used by researchers studying the swimming performance of fish in extreme flow and the biomechanics of feeding in baleen whales.