Abstract
Studies have shown that the structure of dolphin skin controls fluid media dynamically. Gaining inspiration from this phenomenon, a kind of bionic structural heterogeneous composite material was designed. The bionic structural heterogeneous composite material is composed of two materials: a rigid metal base layer with bionic structures and an elastic polymer surface layer with the corresponding mirror structures. The fluid control mechanism of the bionic structural heterogeneous composite material was investigated using a fluid–solid interaction method in ANSYS Workbench. The results indicated that the bionic structural heterogeneous composite material’s fluid control mechanism is its elastic deformation, which is caused by the coupling action between the elastic surface material and the bionic structure. This deformation can decrease the velocity gradient of the fluid boundary layer through changing the fluid–solid actual contact surface and reduce the frictional force. The bionic structural heterogeneous composite material can also absorb some energy through elastic deformation and avoid energy loss. The bionic structural heterogeneous composite material was applied to the impeller of a centrifugal pump in a contrast experiment, increasing the pump efficiency by 5% without changing the hydraulic model of the impeller. The development of this bionic structural heterogeneous composite material will be straightforward from an engineering point of view, and it will have valuable practical applications.
Highlights
IntroductionThe simulation of natural phenomena using the biomimetic approach is useful for addressing complex engineering problems and is an effective method for improving performance.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] When an organism combines a number of factors such as morphology, structure and materials in a process known as biological coupling,[9,10] it improves abilities such as drag reduction,[11,12] noise reduction,[13,14] anti-adhesion[15] and selfcleaning.[4,16] For example, there is a huge difference between the rapid swimming speed of a dolphin and the available physiological power needed to achieve that speed.[17] The dolphin’s perfectly streamlined body is considered to be one of the main reasons for its speed,[18] but many studies[19,20,21,22] have shown that the characteristics of the skin are important
From the foregoing results and analysis, it can be deduced that the bionic structural heterogeneous composite material (BSHCM) has the function of drag reduction, achieved by a decreasing velocity gradient through elastic deformation
When the water flows through the surface of the BSHCM, some displacement and deformation are produced because of the elastic surface material coupled with the bionic structures
Summary
The simulation of natural phenomena using the biomimetic approach is useful for addressing complex engineering problems and is an effective method for improving performance.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] When an organism combines a number of factors such as morphology, structure and materials in a process known as biological coupling,[9,10] it improves abilities such as drag reduction,[11,12] noise reduction,[13,14] anti-adhesion[15] and selfcleaning.[4,16] For example, there is a huge difference between the rapid swimming speed of a dolphin and the available physiological power needed to achieve that speed.[17] The dolphin’s perfectly streamlined body is considered to be one of the main reasons for its speed,[18] but many studies[19,20,21,22] have shown that the characteristics of the skin are important. Matsumura et al.[23] found that wall deformation corresponds to an increase.
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