Majority of natural surfaces are packed with different forms of textures. Such textures come in periodic and random forms, covering the flexible skin of the respective species. The non-smooth skin of plants and animals offer different forms of functionalities to these species; the rib-like structure of the micro-scale denticles of fast swimming shark species allows hem to swim faster than other marine animals; the hierarchical structure of lotus leaves are well-knwon for their super-hydrophobicity and self-cleaning; the scales on butterfly wings are known to create a form of anisotropy, limiting the rolling direction of water droplets. In addition to the textures, the elastic compliance of the flexible skin underneath these textures and its deformation during maneouver, gives rise to intricate flow fields around these natural bodies.
We employ state of the art fabrication techniques ranging from CNC maching, 3D printing, and soft materials to create simplified laboratory size experimets to study the multi-physical problems in both internal and external flows.
For more information:
- Shabnam Raayai-Ardakani “A polynomial framework for design of drag reducing periodic two-dimensional textured surfaces.” International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, 2022, 98(December), Pp. 109046.
- Shabnam Raayai-Ardakani and Gareth H. McKinley. “Geometry mediated friction reduction in Taylor-Couette flow.” Physical Review Fluids, 2020, 5(12), Pp. 124102.
- Shabnam-Raayai Ardakani and Gareth H. McKinley. “Geometric optimization of riblet-textured surfaces for drag reduction in laminar boundary layer flows.” Physics of Fluids, 2019, 31(5), Pp. 053601.
- Shabnam Raayai-Ardakani and Gareth H. McKinley. “Drag Reduction Using Wrinkled Surfaces in High Reynolds Number Laminar Boundary Layer Flows.” Physics of Fluids, 2017, 29(9), Pp. 093605