Surveillant and hydrodynamic benefits of fish schooling

This research explores the surveillance capability and hydrodynamic benefits of fish school. It has been argued that fish schooling serves multiple objectives such a finding better resources, enhance swimming performance and protecting against predators attack the group.  In this abstract, we explore the connection between the morphologies of fish schools and the long-range predator detection in species such as allis shad. The radiation and diffraction of sonic and ultrasound waves in different school shapes and sizes are quantified and correlated to the hydrodynamic performance of the school. The model consists of a fish school that shows a typical chess-like formation with a specified spacing between fishes, which is typical for most species. Each fish is represented by a NACA0012 airfoil and the Kutta condition is applied to create the vortex wake behind each fish. The wave propagation is modeled with the boundary integral approach. We will talk about optimal fish length and the separation distance between members of a group to create a supper biological organism that can amplify the low amplitude signal for better detection while benefiting from hydrodynamic interactions between the members.