The potential of bio-inspired structures on anti-biofouling

Biofouling is the accumulation of biological organisms on wet surfaces. It particularly affects marine transportation by increasing skin drag and may produce local flow separation, increasing fuel costs, schedule, and maintenance breaks. Drag-reducing bioinspired structures (Humberto et al. PNAS 2018) may control biofouling by increasing local near-wall turbulence with unsteady blowing and suction mechanisms. We explored experimentally this phenomenon in terms of its ability to prevent the formation of a slime layer. We used sodium alginate solution to mimic the secretions of marine organisms. A dye test was used to examine the formation of the slime layer with and without surface coating under turbulence and laminar flow regimes. We will quantitatively discuss the flow interaction in the bio-inspired structures and the slime from micro-scope and PIV techniques.