Tuna Swimming Technique Propel Rolls’ Green Hopesff
4 July 2007
United Kingdom Rolls-Royce, the aero-engine company better knownfor powering the likes of a Boeing 747, has turnedits attention to a very different form ofpropulsion: that of the tuna fish.
Researchers at the company’s offices in Norway arestudying the way tuna fish swim in order to helpdevelop the next generation of engines for ships.
Tuna fish are thought particularly interestingbecause they have a remarkable ability to swim athigh speeds and accelerate quickly with low use ofenergy. “They are remarkably efficient,†said Paul Greavesof Rolls-Royce. “We are trying to find out how wecan make a man-made propulsor to imitate the fishtail.â€
The aerospace industry has three stages ofdevelopment, “Vision 5†for the next five years,Vision 10 and Vision 20; the program is part ofRolls-Royce’s Vision 20 research. It has built aprototype based on the principles of a fish tail;large-scale tests have proved successful. Greaveswill not disclose exactly how the technology operates, other than to say that it is asimulation of a fish tail.
â€I think we will see applications using thistechnology within the next 10 years,†he said,adding that a large ship could easily be propelledusing the technology.
Among the advantages of the new technology are its “green†credentials; because it would provide astep change in efficiency, any ship using it wouldrequire less fuel. “There is the potential to save a lot of energy,†said Greaves.
