Burst-and-coast swimming is an intermittent mode of locomotion used by various fish species. The intermittent gait has been associated with certain advantages such as stabilizing the visual field, improved sensing ability, and reduced energy expenditure. We investigate burst-coast swimming in rummy nose tetra fish (Hemigrammus bleheri) using a combination of experimental data and numerical simulations. The experiments were performed in a shallow water channel where the tetra fish swam against an imposed inflow. High speed video recordings of the fish were digitized to extract the undulatory kinematics at various swimming speeds. The kinematics data were then used in Navier–Stokes simulations to prescribe the undulatory motion for three-dimensional geometrical models of the fish. The resulting steady-state speeds of the simulated self-propelled swimmers agree well with the speeds observed experimentally. We examine the power requirements for various realistic swimming modes, which indicate that it is possible to use continuous swimming gaits that require considerably less mechanical energy than intermittent burst-coast modes at comparable speeds. The higher energetic cost of burst-coast swimming suggests that the primary purpose of intermittent swimming may not be to conserve energy, but it may instead be related to a combination of other functional aspects such as improved sensing and the likely existence of a minimum tail-beat frequency. Importantly, using sinusoidal traveling waves to generate intermittent and continuous kinematics, instead of using experiment-based kinematics, results in comparable power requirements for the two swimming modes.

爆发和海岸游泳是各种鱼类使用的间歇运动模式。间歇性步态具有某些优点，例如稳定视野、提高感知能力和减少能量消耗。我们调查了拉米鼻四鱼 ( Hemigrammus bleheri) 中的爆发式海岸游泳) 使用实验数据和数值模拟的组合。实验是在浅水通道中进行的，在那里四条鱼逆着强加的流入而游动。鱼的高速视频记录被数字化，以提取各种游泳速度下的波动运动。然后在 Navier-Stokes 模拟中使用运动学数据来规定鱼的三维几何模型的波动运动。由此产生的模拟自走式游泳者的稳态速度与实验观察到的速度非常吻合。我们检查了各种真实游泳模式的功率要求，这表明在可比的速度下，可以使用比间歇性爆发滑行模式需要少得多的机械能的连续游泳步态。爆发式海岸游泳的更高能量成本表明，间歇性游泳的主要目的可能不是为了节省能量，而是与其他功能方面的组合有关，例如改进的传感和可能存在的最小尾翼。拍频。重要的是，使用正弦行波产生间歇和连续运动学，而不是使用基于实验的运动学，导致两种游泳模式的功率要求相当。