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Fish mouths as engineering structures for vortical cross-step filtration

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  • S. Laurie Sanderson

    (College of William and Mary, PO Box 8795)

  • Erin Roberts

    (College of William and Mary, PO Box 8795)

  • Jillian Lineburg

    (College of William and Mary, PO Box 8795)

  • Hannah Brooks

    (College of William and Mary, PO Box 8795)

Abstract

Suspension-feeding fishes such as goldfish and whale sharks retain prey without clogging their oral filters, whereas clogging is a major expense in industrial crossflow filtration of beer, dairy foods and biotechnology products. Fishes’ abilities to retain particles that are smaller than the pore size of the gill-raker filter, including extraction of particles despite large holes in the filter, also remain unexplained. Here we show that unexplored combinations of engineering structures (backward-facing steps forming d-type ribs on the porous surface of a cone) cause fluid dynamic phenomena distinct from current biological and industrial filter operations. This vortical cross-step filtration model prevents clogging and explains the transport of tiny concentrated particles to the oesophagus using a hydrodynamic tongue. Mass transfer caused by vortices along d-type ribs in crossflow is applicable to filter-feeding duck beak lamellae and whale baleen plates, as well as the fluid mechanics of ventilation at fish gill filaments.

Suggested Citation

  • S. Laurie Sanderson & Erin Roberts & Jillian Lineburg & Hannah Brooks, 2016. "Fish mouths as engineering structures for vortical cross-step filtration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-9, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11092
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11092
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