Posted on 10/21/2009 9:19:34 PM PDT by GodGunsGuts
Many species of marine creatures are very well suited to their watery environment, with precisely arranged gas exchange organs, properly angled eyeball parts, and streamlined bodies with appropriate musculature for expert swimming. They also have a continuously sloughing slime layer that lubricates their underwater motion. Rahul Ganguli of Teledyne Scientific in California is experimenting with ways to provide a similar slime for ship hulls to glide through water more efficiently...
(Excerpt) Read more at icr.org ...
Ping!
Thanks for the ping!
I thought synthetic shark skin was supposed to cut the friction
Going back 50 years ago, naval artichokes were trying to inject oil type stuff into the boundry layer to reduce skin friction. Never somehow worked out, but more power..or less power to them.
==I thought synthetic shark skin was supposed to cut the friction
That sounds right, but the slime protects against fouling, which a synthetic shark skin by itself would not.
we ought to just find a way to incorporate the moral fiber that makes up an Obama appointee into the hull of any particular ship. The slimeballs he uses seem to not cast off a slick behind them when in ocean water. However, hot water does seem to cast them off over time.
A friend who races dinghys said that several competitors have tried methods of injecting long string polomers [like Rain-Off} through the forward part of the hull. It is evidently somewhat effective in reducing drag, increasing speed but has been ruled illegal by international racing authorities.
This is 8-10 year old info - so things may have changed.
When I was in the naval architecture dept at UC Berkeley in the early 80’s, we were running experiment with viscous fluid to induce a boundary layer that would reduce drag.
Never worked right because 1. It would require a huge amount of liquid to be stored on the vessel and 2. Navy guys said it would be of no use to them because it would leave a “snail trail” that any enemy could follow.
Now a sort of skin like sharks have may have worked but it kept on tearing at speed.
Oh crap not navy intel and BuShips is going to knock on my front door.
Keelhaul them.
How about plain old compressed air, like those ultra Russian torpedoes?
edit - not not but now
Oh by the way the real solution is microbubbles or a drafting cone created by cavitation.
Just put Robert Gibbs into a blender, instant slime.
Wouldn’t a ship-hull-cleaning roomba be easier?
I remember reading in science digest or pop science about them using fine air bubbles on subs to reduce friction
Cool pic! I just got back from Alaska, I searched and searched for Killers, but I didn’t see one. But I saw a ton of other whales. Unfortunately, they looked tiny next to our giant cruise ship.
“Dolphin trick
It might seem counterintuitive to reduce drag by wrinkling the surface of a craft, but nature provides a precedent. “Dolphins induce their skin to wrinkle, so water won't stick to them,” says Lagoudas.
After calculating that this approach would work, his team tested designs for an “active skin” that shifts to the shape of an ideal surface wave.”
www.newscientist.com/.../dn13693-shapeshifting-skin-to-reduce-drag-on-planes-and-subs.html -”
Whether it ever came to anything I don't know.
OYG........lyin’ Brian Thomas MS* actually wrote an informing article with no false conclusion of “See, God did it.”
I see you trying to insinuate some intelligent design wording........but BRAVO for not coming right out and saying “this proves Genesis”
sail the ship hulls over to DU and they will instantly feel slimy. Guaranteed!
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