Journal
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 10, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71434-8
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Funding
- BAE SYSTEMS
- Royal Academy of Engineering [RCSRF1617\4\11]
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [BR 1494/32-1]
- DFG [RI 680/39-1]
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Aquatic animals have developed effective strategies to reduce their body drag over a long period of time. In this work, the influence of the scales of fish on the laminar-to-turbulent transition in the boundary layer is investigated. Arrays of biomimetic fish scales in typical overlapping arrangements are placed on a flat plate in a low-turbulence laminar water channel. Transition to turbulence is triggered by controlled excitation of a Tollmien-Schlichting (TS) wave. It was found that the TS wave can be attenuated with scales on the plate which generate streamwise streaks. As a consequence, the transition location was substantially delayed in the downstream direction by 55% with respect to the uncontrolled reference case. This corresponds to a theoretical drag reduction of about 27%. We thus hypothesize that fish scales can stabilize the laminar boundary layer and prevent it from early transition, reducing friction drag. This technique can possibly be used for bio-inspired surfaces as a laminar flow control means.
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