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Updated: May 28, 2026

C. elegans Tracking and Behavioral Measurement
Published on: November 17, 2012
Wake-body resonance of long flexible structures is dominated by counterclockwise orbits
Rémi Bourguet1, Yahya Modarres-Sadeghi, George E Karniadakis
1Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, USA. bourguet@mit.edu
Abstract:
We identify a dominant mechanism in the interaction between a slender flexible structure undergoing free vibrations in sheared cross-flow and the vortices forming in its wake: energy is transferred from the fluid to the body under a resonance condition, defined as wake-body frequency synchronization close to a natural frequency of the structure; this condition occurs within a well-defined region of the span, which is dominated by counterclockwise, figure-eight orbits. Clockwise orbits are associated with damping fluid forces.
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