Smart morphable surfaces for aerodynamic drag control.

Terwagne, Denis; Brojan, Miha; Reis, Pedro M · Adv Mater · 2014

biomechanical · Level V

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Abstract

Smart Morphable Surfaces enable switchable and tunable aerodynamic drag reduction of bluff bodies. Their topography, resembling the morphology of golf balls, can be custom-generated through a wrinkling instability on a curved surface. Pneumatic actuation of these patterns results in the control of the drag coefficient of spherical samples by up to a factor of two, over a range of flow conditions.