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Updated: Oct 4, 2026

Swimming Performance Assessment in Fishes
Published on: May 20, 2011
[The optimality principle in undulatory swimming]
1Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Abstract:
A comparative analysis of the experimental records of bending waves for various organisms (flagella, fish, dolphin) was performed. To explain the sphenoid shape of a bending wave, a new dynamic principle of optimal organization of wave drivers, the principle of focal optimality, was formulated and substantiated. According to this principle, each region of the body oscillates relative to the top of a wedge "focus" with a shift by about a phase quarter, thus providing a maximum contribution to the total driving force.
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