基于综合游动力学的鲹科鱼类巡游中的肌肉力学性能研究

The effects of the mechanical properties of active muscles on fish’s locomotory performance during steady swimming of carangiform swimmer will be studied, based on the integrated swimming mechanics. The Integrated swimming mechanics is a technique for studying the integration of the kinematic chain in fish swimming, i.e. muscle activation - fish body deformation - fluid reaction - swimming performance. As power source, active shortening muscles generate all of the mechanical energy to sustain fish body movement. And its mechanical characteristics have impacts on the fish’s locomotion performance, and therefore are worthy our attention. The experiments in vitro found axial variation in contraction kinetics in muscle of carangiform fishes (such as the decline of the activation rate, the relaxation rate and the maximum isotonic contraction velocity towards the tail). However, it is not clear yet how this may bear on muscle’s ability to power swimming. Therefore, it is necessary to model the freely fish swimming driven by active muscles and test the propulsion performance by means of the global modeling of the integrated swimming mechanics. To reveal the mechanism of how muscle power the undulatory motion will beneficial for the bionics and the bionic robot fish design, and will promote the understanding of the biological evaluation.

本项目旨在基于综合游动力学，研究鲹科鱼类巡游中主动收缩肌肉的力学性能对鱼类波状摆动推进性能的影响。所谓综合游动力学，是研究鱼类游动的运动链“肌肉动作-鱼体变形-流体反作用-整体运动”的一体化问题。其中运动链上游的肌肉提供鱼游所需的主动力和机械能，其力学性能是鱼游运动性能的重要影响因素。在离体实验中发现，鲹科鱼类的肌肉力学性能呈现出沿鱼体轴向的渐变（包括激活速率、松弛速率和最大等张收缩速度等向尾部方向递减）。此现象对于鱼类推进有何意义，尚未得到清楚的解释。因此，有必要从综合游动力学的研究角度，对鱼类在肌肉驱动下的自由游动进行建模分析，探索肌肉驱动鱼体变形运动的力学机理。这既是生物学家理解生物进化的需要，又对当前的仿生学和仿生机器学的研制有着重要的意义。