Shark-Skin-Inspired Surfaces for Drag Reduction

Fabrication and fluid-mechanical testing of textured surfaces, inspired by shark denticles.

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Motivation

Shark skin is covered in microscopic riblet-like denticles that are believed to reduce drag. At the Rowland Institute at Harvard (2020–2021, with Dr. Shabnam Raayai-Ardakani), I studied how engineered surface textures modify skin-friction drag — a problem where careful experimental design matters as much as the physics.

What I did

• Designed and fabricated textured surfaces via mold design and polymer casting
• Built experimental setups to measure drag on textured versus smooth surfaces under controlled flow conditions
• Analyzed the measurements to connect texture geometry (spacing, height, shape) to drag performance
• Used the resulting data for physics-guided optimization of the surface geometry

Why it matters

Drag reduction from surface texture is a delicate, geometry-sensitive effect: the same riblets that help at one scale can hurt at another. Quantifying this reliably requires tight tolerances in fabrication, well-characterized flow, and honest statistics — an end-to-end exercise in experimental mechanics.