Exquisitely sensitive seal whisker-like sensors detect wakes at large distances
Heather R. Beem, Michael S. Triantafyllou

TL;DR
This study demonstrates that artificial whisker-like sensors, modeled after harbor seal whiskers, can passively detect and analyze distant vortex wakes by oscillating at the wake's characteristic frequency, enabling remote flow sensing.
Contribution
The paper introduces a novel passive flow detection mechanism using seal-inspired whiskers that can identify and characterize distant wakes through frequency locking and large amplitude oscillations.
Findings
Whisker geometry results in low vibration in open water.
Whiskers oscillate with large amplitude within wakes.
Oscillation frequency matches the wake's Strouhal frequency.
Abstract
Blindfolded harbor seals are able to use their uniquely shaped whiskers to track vortex wakes left by moving animals and objects that passed by up to 30 seconds earlier; this is an impressive feat as the flow features they detect may have velocity as low as 1 mm/s, and the seals have some capacity to identify the shape of the object as well. They do so while swimming forward at high speed, hence their whiskers are sensitive enough to detect small-scale changes in the external flow field, while rejecting self-generated flow noise. Here we identify and illustrate a novel flow mechanism that allows artificial whiskers with the identical unique geometry as those of the harbor seal to detect the features of minute flow fluctuations in wakes produced by objects far away. This is shown through the study of a model problem, consisting of a harbor seal whisker model interacting with the wake of…
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Taxonomy
TopicsFluid Dynamics and Vibration Analysis · Aerodynamics and Fluid Dynamics Research · Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows
