Comparison of buoyancy, passive and net active drag forces between Fastskin™ and standard swimsuits

Benjanuvatra, Nat; Dawson, Galvin C.; Blanksby, Brian; Elliott, Bruce

doi:10.1016/s1440-2440(02)80032-9

Cited by 36 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…But these cases involved study of a rigid body covered with a biomimetic skin, which is not the situation for a shark in vivo, where body undulations can greatly alter the structure of surface ornamentation and change flow characteristics over the skin. In addition, a variety of tests with the Speedo ® FSII swimsuit 'shark-like' material resulted in a 7.7% (Benjanuvatra et al, 2002) and 10-15% (Mollendorf et al, 2004) reduction in the stiff-body drag compared with that of normal swimsuits under certain conditions, but other studies or tests showed no significant drag reduction (Benjanuvatra et al, 2002;Toussaint et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The hydrodynamic function of shark skin and two biomimetic applications

Oeffner

Lauder

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

253

179

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SUMMARYIt has long been suspected that the denticles on shark skin reduce hydrodynamic drag during locomotion, and a number of manmade materials have been produced that purport to use shark-skin-like surface roughness to reduce drag during swimming. But no studies to date have tested these claims of drag reduction under dynamic and controlled conditions in which the swimming speed and hydrodynamics of shark skin and skin-like materials can be quantitatively compared with those of controls lacking surface ornamentation or with surfaces in different orientations. We use a flapping foil robotic device that allows accurate determination of the self-propelled swimming (SPS) speed of both rigid and flexible membrane-like foils made of shark skin and two biomimetic models of shark skin to measure locomotor performance. We studied the SPS speed of real shark skin, a silicone riblet material with evenly spaced ridges and a Speedo ® ʻshark skin-likeʼ swimsuit fabric attached to rigid flat-plate foils and when made into flexible membrane-like foils. We found no consistent increase in swimming speed with Speedo ® fabric, a 7.2% increase with riblet material, whereas shark skin membranes (but not rigid shark skin plates) showed a mean 12.3% increase in swimming speed compared with the same skin foils after removing the denticles. Deformation of the shark skin membrane is thus crucial to the drag-reducing effect of surface denticles. Digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) of the flow field surrounding moving shark skin foils shows that skin denticles promote enhanced leading-edge suction, which might have contributed to the observed increase in swimming speed. Shark skin denticles might thus enhance thrust, as well as reduce drag.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The hydrodynamic function of shark skin and two biomimetic applications

Oeffner

Lauder

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

253

179

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“…Much of the data relating to the use of body suits to performance is based on comparison of Speedo Fastskin TM and traditional suits (Rogowski et al 2006). A study carried out by Toussaint et al (2002) (Sanders et al 2001;Benjanuvatra et al 2002). Accordingly, the comparison of a traditional swimsuit with the TYR Aquapel TM suit observed a rise in the velocity values when wearing the TYR Aquapel TM suit (Smith et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of wearing a swimsuit on hydrodynamic drag of swimmer

Marinho

Mantha

Vilas-Boas

et al. 2012

Braz. arch. biol. technol.

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“…maximal swimming performance depends on the interplay between biomechanical and bio energetic aspects (Barbosa et al, 2009), the optimization of these factors through the use of more efficient swimsuits lead up to the improvement of high level swim performance. Benjanuvatra observed that this kind of suits provides no additional buoyancy benefits (Benjanuvatra et al, 2002). Performance's improvement was immediately clear (Shahbazi et al, 2008), so the diffusion of these new racing suits was very fast (matsunami and Taimura, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%