Drag Reduction in Nature
Drag Reduction in Nature
REVIEWS Further
Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 1991. 23: 65-79 Quick links to online content
D. M. Bushnell
K. J. Moore
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INTRODUCTION
The "energy crisis" of the 1970s rekindled interest and research in drag
reduction techniques for all types of land, sea, and air transportation. As
in any research, the kernel problem for drag reduction is the genesis and
development of new approaches, techniques, insights, and understanding.
One source of inspiration for alternative drag-reduction approaches is a
renewed study of Avians and Nektons, i.e. fliers and swimmers in the
natural world. The presumption is that drag-reduction adaptations have
evolved for improved efficiency or speed, or both, thereby aiding species
survival in the Darwinian sense. Such a study should result in (a) identi
fication of approaches that technology could pursue and, if successful,
optimize for practical application; (b) identification of instances where
existing human-derived technology occurs in the natural world; and (c)
improved understanding of animal form and function. This review docu
ments the current status of such an examination conducted intermittently
over the last 10 years by the authors for ultimate application to such systems
as aircraft, submersibles, surface ships, and long-distance pipelines.
An appropriate beginning is to define and delineate the various forms
of drag affecting both natural and man-made fliers and swimmers. Poten
tially the largest drag component is pressure or form drag, which is par-
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66 BUSHNELL & MOORE
ticularly troublesome when flow separation occurs. The basic physics for
this drag component involves the viscous influence upon the ideal or
inviscid-flow pressure field. Some pressure drag, at a relatively benign
level, occurs even if the flow is attached, simply because of the uncambering
of the surface by viscosity-induced flow displacement. However, once flow
separation occurs, this drag component increases tremendously. There
fore, the foremost consideration for drag control and mitigation for species
survival and efficiency is probably the avoidance of flow separation. The
two remaining drag components (for submerged swimmers and fliers)
skin-friction drag and drag due to lift-are usually of the same order (for
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FORM-DRAG REDUCTION
Turbulent Flow
Vortex Generators
Mass Transfer
Another alternative approach to "energizing" the near-wall flow to obviate
separation drag is to simply add momentum directly by blowing at high
speed along the wall. This is again widely used in industry and is possibly
utilized in nature by fish that close down the inboard gill during turns and
shunt the gill efflux into the outboard, separation-prone region of the body
(Lighthill 1969). The orientation and placement of the gill openings are
particularly well suited to this jet-blowing technique (Babenko & Koval'
1982), which is at the heart of much of the high-lift aviation technology.
An alternative mass-transfer technique is passive "bleed," or utilization of
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associated with caudal keels requires considerable further study. The cau
dal finlets along the margin of the body probably serve to segment the
organized vorticity shed by the body due to swimming motions and, when
in pairs, accelerate the flow into the caudal (propulsive) fin ( Walters 1962).
One of the most obvious methods of dealing with protuberance drag is to
eliminate the protuberance, and this is accomplished on some species by
folding back various fins into the body at high speeds (8urdak 1957,
Aleyev 1977, Magnuson 1978).
Sur/ace "Additives"
In water, except for maintenance of laminar flow, surface additives provide
the largest skin-friction drag-reduction payoff. These additives are of three
types: (a) polymers, (b) surfactants, and (c) bubbles. Detailed studies
indicate that most fish slimes exhibit significant drag-reduction behavior
(Rosen & Cornford 1971, Hoyt 1975), with maximum effectiveness occur
ring upon deposition into the very near-wall region. Drag reductions well
above 50% are commonly measured for the polymer case (Povkh et al
1979). The appearance of ctenoid scales in the turbulent-flow (and usually
only in the turbulent-flow) regions of fish (Pershin et al 1976, Aleyev 1977;
Figure 1) suggests that the toothlike structure of these scales may aid in
the deposition of the slime-polymer into the critical near-wall region. These
"teeth" are a subroughness and therefore should not, by themselves, affect
the turbulence directly. It should be pointed out that while fish slime does
contain high-molecular-weight polymer compounds, such as mucopoly
saccharides, nucleic acids, and proteins (Pershin et al 1976), it also
contains surfactants in the form of lipids, phospholipids, and lipoproteins
(Lewis 1970, Mittal & Agarwal 1977, Lebedeva & Chernyakov 1978,
Zaccone 1979). It is only recently that surfactants were recognized as
producing drag-reduction effects similar to those of aqueous solutions of
DRAG REDUCTION IN NATURE 71
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Morphology
flow direction. In the swordfish case, the high drag associated with early
thin turbulent layers occurs on the sword, which has a small wetted area
and hence a small total drag. By the time the turbulent flow reaches the
main body of the animal, the viscous layer is thick and, therefore, the drag
per unit area is smaller over the main body region, which contains the
major portion of the wetted surface.
Another geometrical alteration associated with skin-friction drag
reduction is the ridge feature occurring on shark dermal denticles (Pershin
et al 1976, Reif 1978, 1982, Reif & Dinkelacker 1982, Raschi & Musick
1986, Bechert et al 1986; Figure 2). These ridges are lined up with the flow
and are of a size and shape similar to the NASA "riblets" (Walsh &
Lindemann 1984) utilized on the 12-m yacht Stars and Stripes in the 1987
America's Cup finals in Australia and in crew races in the 1984 Olympics.
DRAG-DUE-TO-LIFT REDUCTION
result of a vertical distribution of the lift vector (Finch 1984, van Dam
1987, Vijgen et al 1989). Tests at the NASA Langley Research Center
indicate beneficial effects from serrated trai li ng edges (Vijgen et al 1990)
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air, simply "porpoises" when traveling at high speed, i.e. it leaps out of the
water and thereby reduces its dragjorce by a factor of 800 (density ratio
of air to water). Au & Weihs argue that this more than pays for the inter
face or wave drag and accounts for the abnormally low apparent drag
coefficients inferred from the assumption of fully submerged travel. Further,
they argue that body surfing on bow waves accounts for certain near-ship
qualitative dolphin speed observations. Controversy remains concerning
the drag-reduction effectiveness of dolphin mucin (Uskova et al 1974).
The status of research concerning the compliant-skin effect upon the
near-wall flow is that both extensive theory and limited experimental data
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