The fluid control mechanism of bionic structural heterogeneous composite materials and its potential application in enhancing pump efficiency

Abstract

Studies have shown that the structure of dolphin skin controls fluid media dynamically. Gaining inspiration from this phenomenon, a kind of bionic structural heterogeneous composite material was designed. The bionic structural heterogeneous composite material is composed of two materials: a rigid metal base layer with bionic structures and an elastic polymer surface layer with the corresponding mirror structures. The fluid control mechanism of the bionic structural heterogeneous composite material was investigated using a fluid–solid interaction method in ANSYS Workbench. The results indicated that the bionic structural heterogeneous composite material’s fluid control mechanism is its elastic deformation, which is caused by the coupling action between the elastic surface material and the bionic structure. This deformation can decrease the velocity gradient of the fluid boundary layer through changing the fluid–solid actual contact surface and reduce the frictional force. The bionic structural heterogeneous composite material can also absorb some energy through elastic deformation and avoid energy loss. The bionic structural heterogeneous composite material was applied to the impeller of a centrifugal pump in a contrast experiment, increasing the pump efficiency by 5% without changing the hydraulic model of the impeller. The development of this bionic structural heterogeneous composite material will be straightforward from an engineering point of view, and it will have valuable practical applications