Journal of Bionic Engineering 9 (2012) 457–464

Bionic Research on Fish Scales for Drag Reduction

Zhaoliang Dou, Jiadao Wang, Darong Chen

State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China

Abstract
To reduce friction drag with bionic method in a more feasible way, the surface microstructure of fish scales was analyzed
attempting to reveal the biologic features responding to skin friction drag reduction. Then comparable bionic surface mimicking
fish scales was fabricated through coating technology for drag reduction. The paint mixture was coated on a substrate through a
self-developed spray-painting apparatus. The bionic surface with micron-scale caves formed spontaneously due to the interfa-
cial convection and deformation driven by interfacial tension gradient in the presence of solvent evaporation. Comparative
experiments between bionic surface and smooth surface were performed in a water tunnel to evaluate the effect of bionic surface
on drag reduction, and visible drag reduction efficiency was obtained. Numerical simulation results show that gas phase de-
velops in solid-liquid interface of bionic surface with the effect of surface topography and partially replaces the solid-liquid
shear force with gas-liquid shear force, hence reducing the skin friction drag effectively. Therefore, with remarkable drag re-
duction performance and simple fabrication technology, the proposed drag reduction technique shows the promise for practical
applications.
Keywords: drag reduction, micro-structured bionic surface, fish scales, polymer coating, interfacial convection and deformation
Copyright © 2012, Jilin University. Published by Elsevier Limited and Science Press. All rights reserved.
doi: 10.1016/S1672-6529(11)60140-6

1 Introduction
Skin friction drag reduction has been re- empha-
sized in the last decades due to the practical values in
engineering applications, including vehicles, aircraft,
ships, and fuel pipelines. Many control methods and
technologies have been suggested to reduce the friction
drag, but most of them are active ones which require
additional power input and complicate the devices[1,2].
Actually, to explore the underlying drag reduction
mechanism and to further reveal the exceptional features
of animals in nature would provide us a novel approach
for friction drag reduction. Along with the rigorous se-
lection process of evolution, survived living organisms
have successfully developed extraordinary abilities to
adapt to the environment, and offer multiple examples of
surfaces that are optimized to control friction[3,4]. Based
on bionics theories, many drag reduction devices such as
micro-structured bionic surface like riblet[5,6] and other
non-smooth surfaces[7] have been developed and re-
garded as a most portable way to be implemented in real
application.
Nevertheless, the designed micro-structured sur-
face are mostly fabricated with traditional mechanical
methods, such as milling, turning and rolling or with
films, which are generally limited to small size and have
hampered the implementation in the industries. Actually,
an interfacial instability theory may provide us a novel
and feasible method for the fabrication of mi-
cro-structured surface. Applications of interfacial con-
vection and deformation are numerous, especially in
chemical engineering and material processing[8]. In the
last several years, interfacial convection and deforma-
tion in the presence of solvent evaporation has been a
subject with increasing investigation because of its im-
portant role in thin-polymer-film engineering during the
solidification process[9], and a few applications in mi-
cro-structured surface fabrication have been reported in
the literature[10,11].
In the present study, the surface microstructure of
fish scales was analyzed attempting to reveal the bio-
logic features responding to skin friction drag reduction.

Corresponding author: Zhaoliang Dou

E-mail: douzl05@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
 458 Journal of Bionic Engineering (2012) Vol.9 No.4

Then micro-structured bionic surface mimicking fish detected caves. For all the parameters above, counts
scales was fabricated through coating technology for were based on the mean of forty-five measurements,
drag reduction. Comparative experiments between bi- three detected areas from each of the fifteen scale sam-
onic surface and smooth surface were performed in a ples.
water tunnel to evaluate the effect of bionic surface on
drag reduction. The effect mechanism was also nu-
merically analyzed by means of computational fluid
dynamic methods.

2 Surface analysis of fish scales

2.1 Sample preparation of fish scales
For sample preparation, three kinds of Carassius
auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) aged 6 months, 12 months and
24 months were picked, and five scales from each fish
above the lateral line were gathered. Fifteen scales col- Fig. 1 Sketch map of the alignment and components of fish
lected above were immersed in distilled water for 2 scales.
hours and in potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution with
(a)
concentration of 5 % for 3 – 4 hours for preliminary
cleaning. After being further cleaned in the ultrasonic
cleaning tank with distilled water and eluted with gra-
dient ethanol, the scale samples were fixed with the
slides for surface analysis.

2.2 Surface topography characteristics of fish scales

The fish scales of Carassius auratus include 3 parts:
a basal, an apical and two laterals. The basal is in the
300.0 m
cutis of fish body, and the laterals are covered by sur-
rounding scales, while the apical is the only part suf-
fering the friction between fish body and water. Fig. 1 (b)

shows a sketch map of the alignment and components of

fish scales. The surface microstructure of fish scales,
especially the apical part was observed by using the
Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and a three di-
mensional non-contact surface profiler MicroXAMTM
(ADE Phase-Shift, USA).
Fig. 2a gives an overview of the apical, which dis-
plays a rather rough appearance. Fig. 2b shows a detailed
micrograph of the apical with a higher magnification. As 20.0 m

it is shown, the apical is covered with micron-scale

caves with diameter range of 5 m to 10 m. The exis-
tence of micron-scale caves on the apical part is also
validated by the MicroXAMTM observation, and the
measurement depth of micron-scale caves is about 1 m
– 3 m. Here, the depth is defined as a statistical distance
from the datum plane to the bottom of the detected caves,
and the diameter is statistical mean surface diameter
counted at the detection level, generally the upside of
Fig. 2 Micrographs of the apical part of fish scales obtained by
SEM. (a) Overview SEM micrograph of the apical; (b) a higher
magnification SEM micrograph of the apical, micron-scale caves
displayed in detail.
Actually, the effect of surface structures and mor-
phologies of fish skin on friction drag reduction has been
a central topic for researchers throughout the world for
many years. Videler[12,13] revealed the connection of oil
 Dou et al.: Bionic Research on Fish Scales for Drag Reduction
producing glands and canal system with the outside
world by abundant micron-scale holes in the skin of
swordfish. As he hypothesized, the concave shape of the
sword created an area of under-pressure as a function of
speed, sucking the oil out of the holes to lubricate the
surface of the head to minimize friction drag. Ovchin-
nikov[14] observed gas bubbles on the sailfish skin, and
speculated that the sailfish could reduce the friction drag
by trapping air within its skin. These hypotheses have
been suggested to explain the fast swimming ability of
fish, but not yet been proven.
The surface microstructure analysis of fish scales
may help us to reveal the biologic features responding to
skin friction reduction and explore the underlying drag
reduction mechanism. Furthermore, the fabrication of
micro-structured bionic surface imitating fish scales
with a simple method may provide us a novel approach
for drag reduction technologies to be implemented in the
industrial applications.
3 Experimental methods
3.1 Bionic surface fabrication
Bionic surface imitating fish scales was fabricated
through spray-painting technology. The paint for spray-
painting was a mixture of several components, listed in
Table 1. After being adequately dispersed with a stirrer,
the mixture was coated on a pretreated substrate utilizing
a self-developed spray-painting apparatus, schemati-
cally shown in Fig. 3.
The apparatus is feasible for plane samples with
size of 5 mm × 40 mm × 80 mm and cylindrical samples
with diameter of 39 mm and length of 325 mm, the
former are used for surface analysis and the latter for
drag reduction test. During spray-painting, parameters
such as pressure, distance, wet film thickness, tempera-
ture and humidity were controlled, of which the values
are shown in Table 2. After the wet coating solidified,
coating samples with bionic surface are prepared.
Table 1 Components of the paint mixture for spray-painting
Components Percentage
Butyl acetate (%)
Dimethylbenzene (%)
Micro particles of metallic oxide (%)
Fluoroethylene vinyl ethercopolymer resin (%)
Polydimethylsiloxane resin (%)
Hexamethylene diisocyanate (%)
459
Air compressor Air filter Spray gun Substrate Motor
Track Moving bolster Substrate
Pedestal
Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of the spray-painting apparatus.
Table 2 Parameters and values for spray-painting
Parameters Values
Muzzle caliber of spray gun (mm) 1.1 – 1.5
Spray-painting pressure (MPa) 0.4  0.6
Spray-painting distance (mm) 150 – 250
Coating thickness (m) 50 – 100
Spray-painting temperature (C) 15 – 25
Spray-painting humidity (%) < 60
3.2 Drag reduction test of bionic surface
To evaluate the effect of bionic surface on drag
reduction, comparative experiments between bionic
surface and smooth surface were performed in a high-
speed water tunnel with a closed circulation system as
shown in Fig. 4a. In the closed circulation system, the
rotation of flow stream was prevented by an anti-re-
volving section, and the vertical stream-wise flow dis-
turbance was eliminated by a honeycomb. To restrain
flow separation and to improve uniformity of fluid flow,
guide vanes in the four bends were also adopted. By
taking the measures above, the quality of the flow in the
test section was ensured.
The skin friction drag was measured in the test
section of the water tunnel, shown in Fig. 4b. The sample
was propped by a central axle, and two small gaps with a
length less than 0.3 mm were interspersed between the
sample ends and its front and back accessories. The
sample could glide along the central axle with the help of
two slip rings at opposite ends. When the water stream
flowed over, the friction drag that the sample surface
suffered was transferred to the force sensor by slip rings
and pins, and finally the force signal from the sensor was
12 acquired by a computer. As the fairings at the front and
8 back ends were fixed to the central support, the pressure
6 drag was completely transferred to the support. As a
62 result, the skin friction drag was measured independ-
2
ently and directly.
10
The skin friction drag of coating samples with bi-
 460 Journal of Bionic Engineering (2012) Vol.9 No.4

onic surface and of smooth samples with roughness Root
Mean Square (RMS) less than 1.6 m was measured
utilizing the water tunnel at flow speed ranging from 6.5
m·s1 to 13.1 m·s1 with water temperature of 21.5C.
The drag reduction percentage of bionic surface com-
pared to smooth surface was defined as
Fs  Fc
well with those of fish scales. The comparability of
surface topography between fabricated bionic surface
and fish scales makes it possible to investigate the effi-
ciency and effect mechanism of fish scales on drag re-
duction with a bionic method.

64.2
O u100%, (1)
Fs

Y Range: 128 m
where  is the drag reduction percentage of bionic sur-
face, FS is the skin friction drag of smooth surface, and
FC is the skin friction drag of bionic surface.

64.2
(a)

Fig. 4 Schematic diagrams of the water tunnel. (a) Flow circula- (b)
tion system; (b) test section for skin friction drag measurement. 60.0
40.0
4 Results and discussion
20.0
4.1 Surface topography characteristics of bionic 0.0
20.0
surface
40.0 z (m)
The surface microstructure of polymer coating 60.0 0.0
1.0
samples was observed with a surface profiler Mi- 75.0 50.0 25.0 0.0 25.0 50.0 75.0
croXAMTM. As shown in Fig. 5, micron-scale caves x (m)

were distributed irregularly on bionic surface, and the (c)

caves were shaped truncated cones with a diameter of 5
m –10 m and a depth of 1 m – 3 m. Here, the defi-
nitions of diameter and depth were similar to those of
micron-scale caves on fish scale surface. For all the
parameters, values are the mean of nine counts, three
detected areas from each of the three coating samples.
According to the measurements, the surface to-
pographical characteristics of bionic surface coincide
Fig. 5 Micron-scale caves on bionic surface (MicroXAM™). (a)
2D image of caves, the size and color of segments in the image
corresponding to the size and depth of caves; (b) cross-section
profile of caves; (c) 3D view.
4.2 Formation mechanism analysis of bionic surface
The surface topography of polymer coating sam-
ples was also analyzed with a Confocal Laser Scanning
Microscope (CLSM). As shown in Fig. 6, at the bottom
 Dou et al.: Bionic Research on Fish Scales for Drag Reduction 461
of each cave, a micron-scale particle exists, and the subsidence hardens and fixes, result in the formation of
caves are similar in size and shape to the particles below. micron-scale caves on bionic surface.
The corresponding relationship between caves and par-
ticles indicates that the particles in coating mixture may
play an important role in the formation of micron-scale
caves. To further investigate the formation mechanism
of micron-scale caves on bionic surface, thermographic
observation are performed and theoretically analyzed.
The temperature change of wet coating film on
plane substrate during the solidification was thermo-
graphically measured using the infrared thermometer
SC660 (FLIR Systems, Inc. USA). According to the
measurement, the average temperature of surface layer
was 22C, while the temperature at bottom adhering to
the substrate was 23.7C, which means the temperature (b)

of the surface layer is lower than that of the bottom layer. 33

Furthermore, a visible temperature difference was also

measured in surface layer. Partial regions in surface
layer surrounding particles had a higher temperature of
22.8C, and those far from the particles were at a lower
temperature of 22C.
The above measurements demonstrate that solvent Fig. 6 Surface topography of bionic surface under the CLSM. (a)
Optical micrograph of the surface layer, brighter areas repre-
evaporation in wet coating film causes temperature de- senting micron-scale particles; (b) 3D image of micron-scale
crease and results in temperature difference in surface caves on bionic surface.
layer during solidification. As the temperature of poly-
mer coating has a direct influence on interfacial tension,
regions surrounding the particles have a higher tem-
perature and lower interfacial tension. In other words,
Cave
the solvent evaporation in surface layer results in the
presence of the gradients of temperature and interfacial
tension, which induces interfacial convection in wet
coating film[15–17]. Regions with higher temperature
Based on the measurements and analysis above, a and lower interfacial tension

schematic diagram was drawn for the formation

mechanism of micro-structured bionic surface (Fig. 7).
Due to the presence of interfacial tension gradient
caused by solvent evaporation in wet coating film, the
coating mixture at regions surrounding the particles with
lower interfacial tension transfers to ambient regions
with higher interfacial tension. Material transference at
the regions surrounding particles leads to subsidence
compared to ambient regions, results in interfacial de-
formation. As the transference and subsidence are syn-
chronous with the solidification and viscosity increment,
interfacial convection fades and then ceases when the
wet coating mixture becomes viscous enough, and the
interfacial deformation caused by the transference and
Particle
Wet coating film
Substrate
Fig. 7 Schematic diagram of the formation mechanism of mi-
cro-structured bionic surface.
4.3 Drag reduction performance of bionic surface
Fig. 8a shows the skin friction drag of smooth
surface and bionic surface with the variation of flow
speed. It is seen that the skin friction drag of the bionic
surface is smaller than that of the smooth surface, and
this trend becomes more significant with the increase in
 462 Journal of Bionic Engineering (2012) Vol.9 No.4

flow speed, about 10% of drag reduction (according to of the caves of the fish scales, it is assumed that air is
Eq. (1)) was observed at the flow speed of 13.1 m·s1, as entrapped in the caves, so air phase establishes and
shown in Fig. 8b. settles steadily in micro-scale coaves of hydrophobic
solid surface[18]. Here we consider a two-phase flow
model, formed from a liquid phase in main flow channel
Skin friction drag (N)

and a gas phase in the micro-scale groove with a size of

10 m × 2 m. The contact angle of gas phase at the
solid-gas-liquid interface is 105, determined by the
surface tension of bionic surface. The fluid flow from
left to right in the flow channel driven by the pressure
gradient Pg , 60 MPa·m1.
Simulation results show that the water flows in the
(a)
flow channel at a speed of 8.6 m·s1. Furthermore, the
1.6 Absolute drag difference 12 near-wall flow close to bionic surface demonstrates
Drag reduction percentage 10.17
8.94 completely different flow field characteristics from that
1.2 7.98 0.963 9
6.61 of smooth surface, and visible drag reduction effect of
5.50 0.657
0.8 4.50 6 bionic surface was obtained, shown in Table 3.
0.453
0.4 0.261 3
0.136 Wall with smooth surface
0.057
0 0 Pg = 60 MPa·m1
6.5 7.8 9.4 10.5 11.8 13.1 Liquid
Fluid speed (m·s1) phase
105
(b)

Fig. 8 The drag reduction efficiency of bionic surface in variation Gas phase
with flow speed. (a) Friction drag of smooth surface and bionic Wall with bionic surface
surface in variation with flow speed; (b) the friction drag differ-
ence between smooth surface and bionic surface. Fig. 9 Schematic diagram of the computational model.

Table 3 Simulation result of drag reduction percentage of bionic

According to the test results, micro-structured bi- surface compared to smooth surface
onic surface imitating fish scales reduces skin friction
Parameters Value
effectively at a great range of flow speed. Therefore, it is Velocity (m·s1) 8.6
reasonable to believe that the surface topography of fish Friction drag coefficient of bionic surface 0.0149
scales with micron-scale caves is an essential biological Pressure drag coefficient of bionic surface 0.0012
feature for fish to reduce the skin friction drag when Total drag coefficient of bionic surface 0.0161

swimming. Total drag coefficient of smooth surface 0.0171

Drag reduction percentage (%) 5.78

4.4 Effect mechanism analysis of bionic surface on

drag reduction As shown in Fig. 10, with the effect of micro-
To investigate the effect mechanism of micro- structured surface topography, flow separation and vor-
structured bionic surface on drag reduction, the flow tex appear on the downwind side and the trailing edge of
field characteristics of bionic surface was numerically the upwind side (Figs. 10a and 10b), and the absolute
simulated by means of computational fluid dynamic pressure in related area descended (Fig. 10c). The gas
methods. For the sake of simplicity, a two dimensional that originally settled in micron-scale caves grew and
Volume of Fluid (VOF) model was adopted for nu- spread over bionic surface in the low pressure condition
merical simulation with the computational software due to flow separation and vortex, and continuous gas
Fluent. film adhering to bionic surface formed in the near-wall
The physical configuration of simulation model is flow(Fig. 10d). With the generated gas phase at solid-
schematically shown in Fig. 9. Consider the micro-scale liquid interface, the shear force at the solid-liquid inter-
 Dou et al.: Bionic Research on Fish Scales for Drag Reduction
face was partially replaced by gas-liquid interfacial shear,
not only reducing the friction of laminar flow, but also
restraining the growth of turbulence flow. As a result, the
skin friction drag reduced effectively.
(a) Contours of stream function (mixture)
(b) Contours of vorticity magnitude (mixture)
(c) Contours of absolute pressure (mixture)
100 88.9 77.8 66.7 55.6 44.4 33.3 22.2 11.1 0
(%)
(d) Contours of volume fraction (Vapor)
Fig. 10 Flow field characteristics of the near-wall flow over
bionic surface.
5 Conclusion
To investigate the possibility of reducing friction
drag with bionic method in a feasible way, the surface
microstructure of fish scales was analyzed, and mi-
cro-structured bionic surface mimicking fish scales was
fabricated through coating technology. Comparative
friction drag tests between bionic surface and smooth
surface were performed in a water tunnel to evaluate the
effect of bionic surface on drag reduction, and the effect
mechanism was numerically analyzed by means of
463
computational fluid dynamic methods. According to the
experimental results and numerical simulation, it is
reasonable to draw the conclusions below:
(1) Micron-scale caves with a diameter of 5 m –
10 m and a depth of 1 m – 3 m disperse irregularly
on fish scales surface, which is a conceivable biological
feature for fish to reduce the skin friction drag when
swimming.
(2) Comparable bionic surface with micron-scale
caves mimicking fish scales forms spontaneously after
the solidification of wet coating film, and micron-scale
particles in coating mixture play an indispensable role in
the formation of micron-scale caves. Interfacial con-
vection and deformation driven by the gradients of
temperature and interfacial tension due to the existence
of particles is a fundamental reason of the cave forma-
tion.
(3) With the surface topography effect of bionic
surface, gas phase develops in solid-liquid interface in
low pressure condition due to flow separation and vortex,
and partially replaces the solid-liquid shear force with
gas-liquid shear force, and resultingly the friction drag is
reduced. Furthermore, the drag reduction efficiency of
bionic surface becomes more remarkable along with the
increment of flow speed, and is over 10% at the flow
speed of 13.1 m·s1.
In subsequent work, based on above studies on the
formation mechanism of micro-structured surface and
the effect mechanism of surface topography on drag
reduction, further research such as accurate control and
optimization of surface topography characteristics will
be performed to maximize the drag reduction efficiency
of bionic surface.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50721004, and
50675112).
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