spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Denny, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Denny, M.

Journal of Experimental Biology, Vol 194, Issue 1 97-115, Copyright © 1994 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

EXTREME DRAG FORCES AND THE SURVIVAL OF WIND- AND WATER-SWEPT ORGANISMS

M Denny

A stationary organism exposed to steady turbulent flow is subjected to a drag force that fluctuates about a mean, and when the drag on the organism is characterized, it is traditionally this mean force that is cited. Important information is lost, however, when the fluctuations in drag are ignored. This is particularly true when extreme drag forces are relevant; for instance, when predicting the survival of benthic animals on wave-swept shores and in torrential streams, or of plants in windblown terrestrial habitats. This study reports on the probability distribution of drag fluctuations for five objects: a flat plate, large and small cylinders, a sphere and a limpet shell. Distributions vary substantially among different objects exposed to the same mainstream flow; the sphere and limpet exhibit larger fluctuations than the plate and cylinders. The distribution of extremes in drag is used to predict the likelihood that an organism will be dislodged. For organisms in which the applied fluid-dynamic stress is near the mean breaking stress (e.g. some corals, trees and mussels), calculations made using the extreme drag can yield a probability of dislodgment substantially higher than that calculated using the average.




© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1994