HYDRODYNAMICS OF SHARK SKIN

How Sharks Swim?

Sharks are fast swimming predators that dwell in the ocean. But unlike fish, they
don’t have a swim bladder so they cannot just float in the water. They can be
thought of as airplanes and the water as the air. They use their tail to propel them
forward, and create lift. They also get the resulting drag as they swim. Their skin
has an effect which reduces the drag acting on them.

Friction Drag

Drag is due to the viscosity of the fluid. It is essentially a measure of the

momentum transfer between the surface of the body and the fluid, creating a
velocity gradient. As you move away from the surface- drag increases, sort of in
layers, along with velocity. When a shark swims, the viscosity of the water
provides some friction against the forward motion. Normally as a fluid flows over
a plane surface, laminar flow causes the least drag. As the flow transitions to
turbulent, the streamlines start swirling and cross flows. As they swirl they create
vortices. Due to interactions of these vortices with the surface, these vortices burst
out of the first layer (viscous sublayer). Then they collide with other vortices, and
other streamlines causing complete disorder in the outer layers as well. Since all
these processes cause a transfer of momentum, these factors contribute to the large
drag experienced by the surface.
Sharkskin

A shark’s skin is not smooth. It is made of an arrangement of tiny, hard tooth-like

structures called denticles or placoid scales, aligned in the direction of fluid flow.
They are curved, and form grooves or valleys in between them making the skin
very rough. These denticles are responsible for drag reduction by reducing the
cross stream movement of vortices. It does this by lowering the bursting of the
vortices into the outer boundary layer.

Initially, it increases drag due to an increase in the contact area. The protrusions
also help add to the turbulence. The stream-vortices that form above the tips
interact with the tips only. So only this small area experiences the larger shear
forces from the higher velocity vortices. What remains in the valleys is the low
velocity fluid, which is responsible for the low shear stresses and this acts on the
majority of the surface area. Thus the momentum transfer near the surface gets
lessened. Since the tips of the scales causes the vortices to remain largely above the
tips, the cross stream movement of the vortices in the valley is much lower. This
effectively helps lower drag and allows the sharks to move faster.

Applications of Shark Skin

Due to its drag reducing properties, sharkskin has a variety of applications in

various fields of mechanical engineering like aerodynamics and fluid dynamics.
Lab experiments have shown that surface covered with denticles like shark skin, or
even synthetic replicas, have faster swimming speeds. But this is only seen when
the body is allowed to bend like a shark’s body would, and is less efficient for rigid
surfaces.
Shark skin like surfaces or coatings derived from it can be used for the bottom
surface of boats and airplane wings.

Researchers in Germany developed paint inspired by the skin of sharks, that could
be used to reduce friction drag and resistance by air and water both. On testing, it
was found that this paint could reduce friction by upto five per cent. This in turn
would help cut down on fuel consumption too. There were also some nanoparticles
in the paint that would help it withstand certain ranges of temperature fluctuations
as well as ultraviolet radiations.

For ships and boats, it could be used to cover the bottom of a boat or the hull of a
ship.

While research was done into applying and using this for cars too, it was found that
since the drag for submerged vehicles was mostly due to surface texture, while that
for cars is affected by other factors too. Therefore the grooves in the shark skin like
materials did not have too much effect on cars, due to the ratio of grooves to the
weight of the car, among other things.

New Research Direction

A team of scientists from Harvard recently questioned the properties of shark skin.
Along with reducing drag, they wondered if it also helped in actually increasing
lift. Lift is the force that actually elevates the aircraft off the ground.

They studied a specific shark, the shortfin mako, by using micro CT scans
(basically like a 3D X-ray) to study its denticles. They then 3D printed these
structures and used it on the airfoil. The airfoil is the curved cross sectional area of
an airplane wing that causes a pressure difference above and below the wing and
thus generates lift. They hypothesized that the denticles on its skin would generate
greater thrust. The structures that were used were curved and had three grooves.
They were placed in a variety of arrangements and sizes to study which one would
provide maximum lift.

The cause behind this could be based on the formation of a ‘separation bubble’,
which is essentially the transition site from laminar to turbulent flow. When an
airplane flies, the laminar flow layer above the wing can separate, transition to
turbulent layer and then gets reattached. Thus the denticles forms a short separation
bubble, which provides extra suction and thus creates lift. They essentially act as
vortex generators and change the flow of air by altering pressure distribution above
the airfoil, in order to make it more aerodynamic.

Thus, along with reducing drag by lowering momentum transfer, denticles like
structures can also possibly increase lift. This has potential applications for
increasing airplane speeds and efficiency. These “shark inspired vortex generators”
can also be used for the blades of turbines and drones.
References

Dean, B., & Bhusan, B. (2010). Shark-skin surfaces for fluid-drag reduction in
turbulent flow: a review. Columbus: Ohio State University.

Fu, Y., Yuan, C., & Bai, X. (2017, March). Retrieved from ScienceDirect:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405451816300484#f00
10

Tom Harris "How Sharks Work" 30 March 2001. HowStuffWorks.com.

<https://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/sharks/shark.htm> 15 November
2018

https://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/05/21/sharkskin-inspired-paint-helps-
planes-boats-cheat-friction
http://research.ufl.edu/publications/explore/v10n1/extract6.html
https://www.aerospace-technology.com/news/sharkskin-design-improves-aircraft-
aerodynamics/