Quantifying performance in the medusan mechanospace with an actively swimming three-dimensional jellyfish model

In many swimming and flying animals, propulsion emerges from the interplay of active muscle contraction, passive body elasticity and fluid–body interaction. Changes in the active and passive body properties can influence performance and cost of transport across a broad range of scales; they specifically affect the vortex generation that is crucial for effective swimming at higher Reynolds numbers. Theoretical models that account for both active contraction and passive elasticity are needed to understand how animals tune both their active and passive properties to move efficiently through fluids. This is particularly significant when one considers the phylogenetic constraints on the jellyfish mechanospace, such as the presence of relatively weak muscles that are only one cell layer thick. In this work, we develop an actively deforming model of a jellyfish immersed in a viscous fluid and use numerical simulations to study the role of active muscle contraction, passive body elasticity and fluid forces in the medusan mechanospace. By varying the strength of contraction and the flexibility of the bell margin, we quantify how these active and passive properties affect swimming speed and cost of transport. We find that for fixed bell elasticity, swimming speed increases with the strength of contraction. For fixed force of contractility, swimming speed increases as margin elasticity decreases. Varying the strength of activation in proportion to the elasticity of the bell margin yields similar swimming speeds, with a cost of transport is substantially reduced for more flexible margins. A scaling study reveals that performance declines as the Reynolds number decreases. Circulation analysis of the starting and stopping vortex rings showed that their strengths were dependent on the relative strength of activation with respect to the bell margin flexibility. This work yields a computational framework for developing a quantitative understanding of the roles of active and passive body properties in swimming.