Laminar Drag Reduction and Anti-fouling Behaviour of Biomimetic Nanostructured Surfaces
- Academic lead
- Sepideh Khodaparast, Mech Eng
- Co-supervisor(s)
- David Harbottle, SCAPE, Christopher Hassall, Biology
- Project themes
- Underpinning Methods for Fluid Dynamics
Surface of most natural plant leaves, animal skins and insect bodies are covered by ordered micro- and nanoscale structures with various morphologies. Understanding the performance of these functional surfaces and their synthetic mimics in dynamic flow conditions yet remains an open challenging question as it lies at the interface of multiple scientific disciplines. This project focuses on the experimental assessment of potential effect of natural nano-patterned surfaces - observed on wings of insects - on the drag reduction and inhibition of (bio)fouling with the goal to develop constructive models for fabrication of biomimetic functional coatings for novel engineering and biomedical applications.