Movable shark scales act as a passive dynamic micro-roughness to control flow separation.

Shark scales on fast-swimming sharks have been shown to be movable to angles in excess of 50°, and we hypothesize that this characteristic gives this shark skin a preferred flow direction. During the onset of separation, flow reversal is initiated close to the surface. However, the movable scales would be actuated by the reversed flow thereby causing a greater resistance to any further flow reversal and this mechanism would disrupt the process leading to eventual flow separation. Here we report for the first time experimental evidence of the separation control capability of real shark skin through water tunnel testing. Using skin samples from a shortfin mako Isurus oxyrinchus, we tested a pectoral fin and flank skin attached to a NACA 4412 hydrofoil and separation control was observed in the presence of movable shark scales under certain conditions in both cases. We hypothesize that the scales provide a passive, flow-actuated mechanism acting as a dynamic micro-roughness to control flow separation.

Low Reynolds number Couette flow facility for drag measurements.

For this study a new low Reynolds number Couette facility was constructed to investigate surface drag. In this facility, mineral oil was used as the working fluid to increase the shear stress across the surface of the experimental models. A mounted conveyor inside a tank creates a flow above which an experimental model of a flat plate was suspended. The experimental plate was attached to linear bearings on a slide system that connects to a force gauge used to measure the drag. Within the gap between the model and moving belt a Couette flow with a linear velocity profile was created. Digital particle image velocimetry was used to confirm the velocity profile. The drag measurements agreed within 5% of the theoretically predicted Couette flow value.