Two things...
1. Can we put it on cars - will it make enough difference at (say) highway speeds?
2. Surely wind turbines need some sort of drag, otherwise the wind won't push them round?
Remorseless German boffins have developed a new type of paint which effectively coats ships, planes and wind turbines in sharkskin, reducing drag and saving energy. According to the scientists and engineers of the Fraunhofer-Institut für Fertigungstechnik und Angewandte Materialforschung (Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing …
1 - You could probably put it on cars, but it wouldn't make a difference for long. Just think of the dirt, squashed insects etc that batter cars all the time - your super-slick paint job would be largely defeated by that. Not to mention all the scuffs etc picked up over time (think about what a car-wash would do....).
2 - Hmm, I agree. I'd have thought that too slick a finish and the wind will just run around those blades. Of course, I'm not an aerodynamicist or a fertigungstechnologist.
Paris knows all about smooth skin....
Sharkskin ppls.
1. Yes you could. Insects, dirt and avian messages from above would affect peformance over time if not cleaned up, but even a very dirty car would still retain some benefit as it is airflow over the entire vehicle that matters, not just the part where it meets the wind and collects bug's bums.
Golfball dimples also work remarkably well.
2. Too smooth a surface has different own problems. Air flows nicely over a smooth surface, but does tend to stick like sh*t to a blanket when the time comes to let go. The easiest way to visualise the idea behind dimples or denticles is to think of each dimple, being filled with a tiny ball of air. Airflow over that surface is then a nearly frictionless air-air interface. Pressure effects still apply, but there is no "grab".
>>2. Surely wind turbines need some sort of drag, otherwise the wind won't push them round?
Nope, wind turbines work the same way as aeroplane wings, by making the distance on the curved side longer than the flat side you have the same amount of air going over the wing which has a larger surface area, therefore it's going faster, therefore it's less dense, and the more dense air from the flat side pushes the blade (wing) round.
Less friction on the wing means that the air can travel faster (not slowed down by friction), producing a greater pressure differential, in other words, more slippery the better.
In addition the more friction the more likely cavtation and turbulance (different speeds to the layers of air) which saps the energy.
Of course there's lots more to it than that, but the rest is even more boring.
I was In Australia during the America's cup in 1987 and worked with a number of the competitors on technical 'stuff'
I ran foul of one American entry when I commented on the odd texture on their hull. Exit stage left pronto.
It turned out that they were using a textured surface to reduce drag. This was a trade secret they were very very keen to keep secret.
"Or it might save just as much money to simply not bother painting the plane at all and save carrying half a ton of paint around the world?"
You don't think they paint planes purely to make them pretty do you? It's a *protective* coating.
That's why he said it weighs nothing - because you need paint anyway and it isn't heavier than normal paint.
"no less than 2,000 tons of fuel annually if applied to a large container vessel"
Isn't the problem with ships, not that the current paint is "draggier"* but the subsequent encrustation of barnacles and other sea life that slows them down, or is this paint mollusc repellent?
*Units of drag, anyone?
i.e. Vorsprung durch Fertigungstechnik. Get it right, folks - this very nearly was the legislative language in the UK! Otherwise, well done El Reg for putting a sensible phrase together in a language other than English.
Mine's the one with the Euros in the pocket.
...substantives begin with a capital letter. So it's Fertigungstechnik, not fertigungstechnik. And if the word "fertigungstechnologist" existed it would be "Fertigungstechnologist" with a likely plural of "Fertigungstechnologisten".
German (like UNIX) is case sensitive.
I would classify that as basic general knowledge. But I live on the mainland. Over there on the island these things just aren't held to be important, are they? Everybody learns all the German they need to know from their Grandad's collection of "The Hotspur". "Raus schnell!"
AC because of adolescent sarcasm.
"I would classify that as basic general knowledge. But I live on the mainland. Over there on the island these things just aren't held to be important, are they?"
You're right they aren't. We've noticed that on the mainland not all of you speak German. Some speak other weird stuff like French or Slovenian and, to be honest, we just learn the easy stuff like Spanish. If we bother at all.
You might think we'd try to learn the most useful foreign languages but as the most common one we encounter in daily life is Polish and very few of us learn that then it's obviously not true.
Too many foreign languages to choose from, not enough time. Or motivation.
How about the bummer, abbr. bum.. This has the advantage of being easy to define and practically measure, as the amount of drag arising when you pull a person in Lederhosen by the feet. The standard unit, 1 bummer, arises on a normal surface like concrete.
by the way eine Fertigung means a finish. In trendier times, I thought the copying of ideas from nature was called bioengineering?
""Hmm, I agree. I'd have thought that too slick a finish and the wind will just run around those blades. Of course, I'm not an aerodynamicist or a fertigungstechnologist.""
If you apply it to inner surface of blades only it will work very well.Leave otter surface the same as you want its drag effect . Lower surfaces of air craft wings etc.
...it's Fertigungstechniker.
However, if it's male and has a wife, that would be the Fertigungstechnikersfrau. If several of them start a book club about antique books, they'd probably call it Fertigungstechnikersfrauenantikbuchclub. And their meetings would be. Fertigungstechnikersfrauenantikbuchclubtreffen.