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Shark skin morphology and hydrodynamic properties

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 SPECIAL GREENTECH | Surface Technology

Shark skin morphology and

hydrodynamic properties
Biomimetic surface Shark skin has being attracted the interest of biomimetic engineering
due to its postulated drag-reducing and antifouling properties. Several companies and research
institutions have developed artificial surfaces for underwater coatings, claiming a biomimetic
approach based on the structure and function of shark skin. Upon closer look, however, most
of these surfaces have either no or only crude similarities to the skin of sharks. Furthermore,
the scientific debate on the basic mechanisms of shark skin’s function to reduce drag is still
going on. The following review by Bernd Daehne and Burkard Watermann from LimnoMar, the
Laboratory for Aquatic Research, Hamburg / Norderney, aims to address the current state of
the discussion and describe the difficulties in creating a biomimetic surface.

F
ast-swimming fish like
sailfish, tuna and shark
have been the subject of
numerous investigations on
swimming behaviour, body
morphology and skin topog-
raphy to reveal their hydro-
dynamic properties. Like sub-
marines, animals swimming
through the water experience
three types of drag that impede
their movement: form drag
due to a difference in pressure
around the body (residual re-
sistance in ships), drag due to
lift (ditto), and skin friction due
to boundary layer formation
(frictional resistance in ships).
To achieve low friction along a
ship’s hull, the application of
coatings with a smooth surface
was postulated as an optimal
condition. The development
of self-polishing polymers for
underwater coatings seemed to
fulfil the requirements of foul-
ing prevention and drag reduc-
tion, creating a smooth surface.
As the mucus of fish species
like sailfish or tuna is one of
the most effective surface layers
for drag reduction (as high as
60%), its hydrodynamic prop-
erties have attracted much at-
tention by researchers seeking
to optimise smooth coatings
(Hoyt, 1975; Bushnell and
Moore, 1991).
In contrast to most fish spe-
cies, the skin of sharks is not
covered by slime but is rough
like sandpaper. It contains only
few unicellular mucous cells
without producing a slimy layer
on top of the scales. Neverthe-
less, the thin mucous layer in
between the scales seems to
facilitate the vortex generation
on shark scales (Figure 1), and
induce a ”fluid roller bearing”
effect (Bhushan, 2010; Videler,
1995). As some shark species
are very fast swimmers and have
adapted their morphology in
450 million-years of evolution,
it can be assumed that even a
“rough” surface exhibits favour-
able properties with regard to
mechanical protection, disease
prevention and hydrodynamics.
Scales
The presence of hard placoid
scales (dermal denticles) in
the skin of elasmobranch fish
has been noted for as long as
sharks have been caught and
has served as an attractive mod-
el for shipbuilders. Due to its
structure, shark skin has been
used as sandpaper or as a cov-
er for weapons. Indeed, shark
skin has several functions. Its
protection against mechanical
damage and its hydrodynamic
properties seem to be espe-

Figure 1: Skin near the gills of bonnethead shark (Sphyrna tiburo) with Figure 2: Skin of bonnethead shark (Sphyrna tiburo), transversal
rounded scales and mucus- producing cells (mc) between the scales section of placoid scale with riblets (arrows). psc = placoid scale,
creating the ”fluid roller bearing” effect , drm = skin, bar = 50 µm drm = skin, bar = 50 µm

48  Ship & Offshore | GreenTech | 2012

cially important, having been
”optimised” in the evolution-
ary process and exhibiting as-
tonishing properties. Since the
Reynolds number of fast sharks
is comparatively high (Re ap-
proximately 106 – 107, calcu-
lated with the body length),
potential drag-reducing mecha-
nisms derived from sharks are
attracting research projects on
the development of technical
drag-reducing surfaces with ap-
plications in aerodynamics and
hydrodynamics.
A substantial body of literature
deals with the morphology of
shark skin and has revealed
basic evidence of the following
aspects:
XX Squamation of all recent
and many fossil groups of
sharks consist of non-growing
placoid scales.
XX The morphology of shark
scales essentially differs accord-
ing to the sharks’ mode of life.
Reif (1985) differentiated four
groups: (1) sharks living in
rocky substrates like coral reefs
with knob-shaped abrasion
resistant scales, (2) demersal
sharks on soft bottoms with
spine-shaped scales to prevent
settlement by ectoparasites, (3)
luminescent deepwater sharks
with scales providing spaces for
photophores and (4) fast off-
shore predators forming scales
with crowns and ridges (Figure 1).
Hydrodynamic aspects
The scales of fast- swimming
sharks have flat crowns that
overlap each other to vary-
ing degrees and are covered
by sharp, V-shaped ridges and
rounded, U-shaped valleys in
between. The orientation of the
ridges is generally in the body
axis. Depending on the size,
each scale has three to seven
ridges with spacing of 30 –
100 µm (Figure 2), the spacing
varying slightly within a species
according to the body region
(Reif and Dinkelacker, 1982).
In most of the 30 species inves-
tigated up to now, the spacings
are under 100 µm.
Fast-swimming sharks can reach
speeds of up to 10 – 20  m/
sec, corresponding to approxi-
mately 20 to 40  knots. It has
been hypothesised that shark
skin interacts with the viscous
sublayer of a turbulent bound-
ary layer by the formation of
streaks. Roughly 40 years ago,
several authors suggested that
the reason for the assumed drag Hempel_1-2h_1-12
reduction of shark skin was the
maintenance and active modifi-
cation of the laminar boundary
layer due to the existence of fine
riblets in a streamwise direction.
This hypothesis was corrobo-
rated by experimental studies
with V-shaped ridges reducing
the drag by up to 8% (Nitschke,
1982; Bechert et al., 1985). The
generation of vortices was at-
tributed by Peng et al. (2009)
to drag reduction as well. The
authors assume that the gener-
ated vortices and induced ex-
change of momentum in a tur-
bulent boundary layer produce
high-speed lumps approaching
the surface. This mechanism
should induce shear stress that
removes larval stages of fouling
organisms and ectoparasites.
This hypothesis, however, re-
mains to be corroborated as the
list of ectoparasites that can be
found on the skin of sharks is
quite long (Cheung, 1992).
Streamwise and
perpendicular riblets
In addition to the specific sur-
face topography of scales with
riblets in streamwise direc-
tion, it has become evident
that fast-swimming sharks can
modify the angle of their scales
in correlation with their swim-
ming speed. In several species
it could be shown that the an-
gle of scales is modified due to
increased tension of the skin
at high speed. Wainwright et
al. (1978) confirmed previous
findings indicating that the in-
ternal pressure increased more
than tenfold from slow to fast
swimming. The effect on the
skin is twofold. The spacing
between the scales is slightly
enlarged, but more important
is the bristling of scales, which
can rise by as much as 40°.
The ability to vary the angle of
scales enables sharks to gen-
erate increased turbulence at
higher swimming speeds, pre-
venting flow separation and ac-
commodating the skin surface
structure in relation to speed.
Laboratory experiments with
riblets aligned perpendicu- 
Ship & Offshore | GreenTech | 2012   49
 SPECIAL GREENTECH | Surface Technology
Scale patterns of various species of fast sharks.
lar to the flow direction – mim-
icking the bristled scales - were
performed by Scholle and Ak-
sel (2006). They revealed an
induction of vortices and re-
duction in drag. In a follow-up
study Lang et al. (2008, 2010)
investigated in detail the effect
of bristled shark skin caused by
the erection of scales at various
angles. They tried to build rep-
licas of the skin of adult short-
fin mako (Isurus oxyrhinchus)
with scales bristled perpendic-
ular to the skin. Experiments
modelling this extreme angle
of bristling confirmed the for-
mation of embedded vortices
within the inter-denticular cav-
ities. The authors suggest that
at low Reynolds numbers flow
over d-type surface roughness,
embedded vortices may reduce
skin friction drag through the
”fluid roller bearing” effect
(Figure 3). The mucus between
the scales supports this drag-
reducing effect (Figure 1). Thus
these embedded vortices, anal-
ogous to the dimples of a golf
ball, may work as a boundary
layer control mechanism to de-
lay or even prevent flow sepa-
ration. Bechert et al. (1985,
2000) pointed out, in contrast
to statements in many popular
publications, that enhanced
mixing does increase shear
stress and drag reduction; it is
exclusively achieved by avoid-
ing flow separation.
50  Ship & Offshore | GreenTech | 2012
View publication stats
In conclusion it can be stated
that shark skin has a three di-
mensional surface topogra-
phy that includes scales with
streamwise riblets, and the
shark can adapt its skin to in-
creasing speed with transversal
riblets composed of erected
scales that lead to the genera-
tion of primary, secondary and
tertiary vortices.
To avoid this complexity, some
investigators used the skin of
dead sharks with flattened scales
as a template to create hard
PMMA ”negatives” and PDMS
soft ”positives.” Even this simpli-
fied shark skin displayed a drag-
reduction effect of 8.25% in wa-
ter tunnel experiments (Han et
al., 2008). As mentioned above,
other researchers created mod-
els with extremely erect scales
(90°), observing drag-reducing
effects as well (cit. op. Lang et
al., 2008). To combine all con-
ditions in which living sharks
can shape their skin according
to speed is hard to achieve. Fur-
thermore, the boundary layer of
a swimming fish is complicated
due to the permanent undula-
tion and definitely different
from one over a rigid plate, e.g.
a rigid skin model or structured
hull surface.
Summing up some aspects of
the current discussion, it must
be stated that the shark skin
models created as technical so-
lutions for ship hulls so far re-
flect to a very simplified degree
the real topography and flexible
properties of the skin in living,
actively swimming sharks. Even
with these simplified models,
a drag reduction of up to 10%
has been reported. Technical
approaches that are closer to
complex shark skin structure
and function may result in
higher degrees of drag reduc-
tion but are unequivocally very
difficult to achieve (Oeffner
& Lauder, 2012). Up to now,
shark skin serves as a model
or delivers the brand name for
several products claiming to
be biomimetic. A close look at
most of these products or coat-
ings reveals quite simplified
adaptations of complex shark
skin, if similarities exist at all.
Figure 3: Primary,
secondary and terti-
ary vortices genera-
tion on a placoid scale
model with perpen-
dicular orientation to
the surface
(Lang et al., 2010)
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