Student Brown Bag Seminar

Nematocysts are stinging organelles found in organisms such as jellyfish, anemones, and hydrozoans. The immersed boundary method is used to couple the elastic equations and the fluid equations to numerically simulate nematocyst firing and ejecting dynamics. The firing model simulates the barb moving with a prescribed motion towards a flexible circle target in two dimensions. In our firing model, we altered parameters for prey size, viscosity of the fluid, and lengths for applying force. Our preliminary results show that the nematocysts ability to accurately hit and puncture a surface it is projected to hit can vary based on the acceleration used to fire as well as the target's size and makeup. The ejection model simulates the collapse of the capsule moving with a prescribed motion which contains the barb that exits and moves in the fluid in two dimensions.  In our ejection model, we altered parameters for the force applied to the capsule, gap size at the end of the capsule, and viscosity of the fluid.