Passive Drag Reduction via Bionic Hull Coatings

Abstract

The resistance of ships is often dominated by friction between the hull and the water. This study explores possibilities of reducing skin-friction drag in a way inspired by dolphins. These possess a soft skin believed to diminish drag by delaying the transition from laminar to turbulent flow. The underlying mechanism builds on a stabilization of the laminar boundary layer by the compliant surface. To transfer this mechanism to ship hulls, coatings similar to dolphin skin have been designed numerically, made from polymeric materials, and tested in a water tunnel. For the best coating, a drag reduction by almost 3% has been predicted in the boundary layer along the hull model of a small search-and-rescue vessel. The trends of the numerical predictions have been confirmed in the experiments. 1. Overview Dolphins are able to sustain a swimming speed of about 9 m/sec across long distances (Carpenter et al. 2000). This fascinating endurance has stimulated the hypothesis that the pliable dolphin skin interacts with the surrounding flow so as to maintain low-drag laminar flow via a delay of transition to turbulence (Gad-el-Hak 1996). Although this hypothesis is under debate (Fish & Lauder 2006), laboratory experiments have indeed demonstrated that soft coatings delay laminar-turbulent transition (Gaster 1987). According to boundary-layer linear stability theory (LST), compliant surfaces are able to mitigate the amplification of Tollmien-Schlichting (TS) waves, the forerunners of transition in low-disturbance environments (Carpenter & Garrad 1985). However, wall compliance may also promote transition in that the flow may excite instability waves borne by the soft coating material. These waves are known as fluid-induced surface instabilities (FISI) (Carpenter & Garrad 1985) or travelling-wave flutter (Gad-el-Hak 1996). FISI waves may in turn via nonlinear effects develop into quasi-steady surface corrugations ("divergence") (Carpenter & Garrad 1986). This process is associated with an absolute instability mechanism (Tsigklifis & Lucey 2015) that rapidly triggers transition via the bypass route. The boundary-layer instability over a compliant coating is hence more complex than that over a rigid surface owing to the presence of two wave-bearing media. Compliant-wall boundary layers also support non-modal transient growth inducing bypass transition (Tsigklifis & Lucey 2015).