Summary
Reducing drag for ships and submersibles has many potential operational benefits including increased speed, increased endurance, reduced fuel usage, and reduced emissions. Prior research has shown successful drag reduction using a variety of mechanisms, but only under laminar flow conditions — where water moves along smooth paths in neat layers around the hull of the vessel. New modeling capabilities and shape optimization methods could enable drag reduction at transitional and fully turbulent regimes — where water moves in chaotic and unpredictable paths.
Drag Reducing Architected Geometries (DRAG) Disruption Opportunity will focus on novel solutions that reduce drag on flat, curved, and complex surfaces in turbulent flows. DRAG is looking at passive mechanisms that do not require inputs such as active air injection, power, or polymer injection.
The program will leverage advances in modeling and simulation to design surface and material architectures for drag reduction. The optimized solutions will be fabricated and then tested in a laboratory water tunnel.