Dolphin-Inspired Coating Helps Reduce Drag on Watercraft

Friction on the wetted hull surface often dominates the total drag force on a marine vehicle. Dolphin skin is believed to diminish friction by shifting the onset of laminar-turbulent flow transition aftward along the dolphin's body. This mechanism is desirable for watercraft, too. Therefore, a compliant coating resembling dolphin skin has been designed numerically by combining boundary-layer transition analysis with a mechanical model of dolphin skin. The coating properties obtained by this approach have been used to manufacture a compliant coating from polymeric materials. This "artificial dolphin skin" has been applied to the bow section of a small search-and-rescue vessel in model scale. Water-tunnel tests of the coated ship model reveal a significant reduction of frictional drag, confirming the numerically predicted trends.

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Albert Baars