Bending Properties of Tail Flukes of Dolphin*

The aim of this paper is to study the bending properties of tail flukes of a dolphin. The bending test was carried out to obtain the displacements on different test points of a fluke. The Young’s moduli of the ligamentous layer and the dense connective tissue in the flukes were obtained from the tensile test and the compression test. In order to establish an FEM model for bending deformation of the flukes, the thickness of the flukes was measured with two laser displacement sensors, and the thickness of the ligamentous layer was also measured. The displacements obtained by the simulation of the FEM model were compared with those of the bending test of the experiments. It was found that the model could be helpful to investigate the relationship between the hydrodynamic force acted on the tail flukes of a dolphin and the deformation of the tail flukes.