Figure 3.

The simulation of a 15 mm bluegill sunfish suction feeding event is compared with particle image velocimetry (PIV) data of the same event. Fluid speed (normalized to the speed at the mouth) is plotted against the distance from the mouth (normalized to the gape along the centreline extending from the fish mouth). The PIV results (dashed line) show that, for all times, this relation can be represented by one curve. That is, flow can be described by a function of one space and one time variable. Simulation data for the centreline extending from the fish mouth is extracted at three different times: 0.02 s (o), 0.03 s (+) and 0.04 s (x) and plotted. For all three times, the calculations closely approximate the experimental data, validating the model.