The unique properties of shark skin may provide engineers with the inspiration to create more aerodynamic machines, researchers say.
A team of evolutionary biologists and engineers at Harvard University, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of South Carolina, have discovered a bioinspired structure that could improve the aerodynamic performance of planes, wind turbines, drones and cars.
The research is published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
“The skin of sharks is covered by thousands and thousands of small scales, or denticles, which vary in shape and size around the body,” said George Lauder, the Henry Bryant Bigelow Professor of Ichthyology and Professor of Biology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and co-author of the research. “We know a lot about the structure of these denticles—which are very similar to human teeth—but the function has been debated.”
Most research has focused on the drag reducing properties of denticles but Lauder and his team wondered if there was more to the story.
“We asked, what if instead of mainly reducing drag, these particular shapes were actually better suited for increasing lift,” said Mehdi Saadat, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and co-first author of the study. Saadat holds a joint appointment in Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Carolina.
To help test that hypothesis, the researchers collaborated with a team of engineers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). For inspiration, they turned to the shortfin mako, the fastest shark in the world. The mako’s denticles have three raised ridges, like a trident. Using micro-CT scanning, the team imaged and modeled the denticles in three dimensions. Next, they 3-D printed the shapes on the surface of a wing with a curved aerodynamic cross-section, known as an airfoil.
“Airfoils are a primary component of all aerial devices,” said August Domel, a Ph.D. student at Harvard and co-first author of the paper. “We wanted to test these structures on airfoils as a way of measuring their effect on lift and drag for applications in the design of various aerial devices such as drones, airplanes, and wind turbines.”
The researchers tested 20 different configurations of denticle sizes, rows and row positions on airfoils inside a water flow tank. They found that in addition to reducing drag, the denticle-shaped structures significantly increased lift, acting as high-powered, low-profile vortex generators.
“These shark-inspired vortex generators achieve lift-to-drag ratio improvements of up to 323 percent compared to an airfoil without vortex generators,” said Domel. “With these proof of concept designs, we’ve demonstrated that these bioinspired vortex generators have the potential to outperform traditional designs.”