Mechanics of fin stiffness in ray-finned fish

Abstract eng:
The fin of ray-finned fish is a composite structure consisting of rays (bony supports) connected by membranes. The elastic stiffness -of a transversely curved fin is higher than for a flat fin because the curvature geometrically couples ray bending with membrane stretching. We present a fin model of two rays, jointed by a single membrane, as a simplified analysis for the coupled mechanics between rays and membranes. The stiffness interpolates between two limits. In the first limit, the membranes are infinitely extensible and the fin simply takes the stiffness of individual rays. In the opposite limit, the membranes are inextensible and rays are restricted to bend along a single direction. The fin takes a higher stiffness which increases monotonically with curvature.

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