Australian scientists have developed a shark skin-inspired film coating for aeroplanes, which they claim can reduce drag and save billions in fuel costs for the airline industry.
Delta Air Lines has teamed up with the Australian aerospace company MicroTau to study the use of a special film that can be applied to planes to increase fuel efficiency.
The technology, being developed in tandem with the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), mimics the shark skin, which has thousands of tiny overlapping scales that allow them to smoothly glide through water.
Similarly, the artificial film coating also helps aeroplanes reduce turbulence, increase flying speed, and cut fuel costs, researchers say.
As an aeroplane cuts through the air, the air forms tiny whirlpools called hairpin vortices that scrub the plane’s surface and create resistance.
The new film coating has tiny riblets narrower than these vortices and keeps the whirlpools from forming near the plane’s surface.
Creating such tiny riblet sections that make the film friction-resistant has been a challenge.
MicroTau overcame the hurdle by using special laser manufacturing technology to rapidly produce the shark skin-like pattern in a light material and turn them into self-adhesive patches.
The film coating is a scalable solution that can be retrofitted onto existing transport to minimise the carbon footprint of transport industries, the company says.
With the technology, commercial aviation and shipping companies can save over $34bn in fuel costs and reduce nearly hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the firm claims.
For instance, if the film were to be applied to an aircraft like the Airbus A380, it could save over $5,000 per flight from Sydney to LA in fuel and more than 18 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, MicroTau said.
This figure could add up to millions over the life of an aircraft, the company said.
MicroTau has already been testing the coating with a range of aircraft, including Lockheed Martin’s hulking C-130J transport planes and Boom Supersonic’s sleek XB-1 prototype.
“The patches survived these conditions comfortably with no observable degradation,” a Boom Supersonic spokesperson told New Scientist.
“It mimics shark skin, and it leverages these micro grooves to reduce a type of surface drag. That surface drag could lead to a fuel benefit of up to 4 per cent,” Sangita Sharma, director of Delta’s Sustainable Skies Lab, told CBC News.
This could add up to saving the airline burning up 4 billion gallons of fuel annually, according to Ms Sharma.
With further refinement of the technology, the Australian firm hopes it can help airlines improve efficiency as much as 10 per cent.
