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What Scorpions Have To Teach Aircraft Designers
First time accepted submitter elloGov writes "The north African desert scorpion, Androctonus australis, is a hardy creature. Most animals that live in deserts dig burrows to protect themselves from the sand-laden wind. Not Androctonus; it usually toughs things out at the surface. Yet when the sand whips by at speeds that would strip paint away from steel, the scorpion is able to scurry off without apparent damage thanks to the unique structure of its carapace. Dr Han Zhiwu of Jilin University and colleagues have found that surface irregularities based on the scorpion's exoskeleton could substantially minimize atmospheric dust damage to aircraft."
They teach aircraft designers that "Rock You Like A Hurricane" fits perfectly at air shows.
...if scorpions could fly.
G.
A lot of work has been done lately on getting very smooth aerodynamic surfaces, because when you promote laminar flow, you can get very significant decreases in drag. Wouldn't this additional surface roughness mess that up?
Is it about changing winds...?
So there was this scorpion that wanted to cross a river...
So there was this 747 that wanted to cross an ocean...
Advice: on VPS providers
...that they would just look fuckin' bad-ass!
What effect do these "surface irregularities" have on drag, and therefore on fuel use?
It would be great to cut down on dust damage, but not at the expense of making every flight more costly...
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
UFO's have been using the "disk" design for decades, now engineers are looking at scorpions. Clearly, "black flap" technology is the logical next step.
Yo dawg, I heard you like the Ackermann function, so OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...getting you over there.
Planes need a poison-tipped tail to fend of pterodactyl attacks. Until they get one of those they are simply flying coffins.
I wish that the phrase "material science" had been around (or more discussed?) when I was younger. This kind of thing really is amazing. I'd also seen a NOVA program in which an anti-microbial surface was created with a diamond-shaped pattern of ridges based on other things in nature (someone has seen this and can give more detail).
If I were starting much younger, I'd love to study material science. Truly amazing -- in the case of the anti-microbial surface (vs the control) they were made of the exact same material, but the shapes dramatically hindered colony growth.
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
Read up on Reynolds Number and educate yourselves :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number
(stewardess) Just switch from Hard Rock to the Easy Listening channel.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Shark Skin is not smooth, but it has low friction in a fluid, in one direction.
I recall seeing a promo video from a company that applied such a surface to an Americas Cup boat hull.
Possibly what you are thinking of.
No brain, no pain.
It doesn't? The F-117 can't even fly without a computer constantly making tiny adjustments. I'm not kidding either, it would literally crash if you tried to fly it manually. It's a flying brick.
The Nighthawk was still designed as much as possible like a true airplane; it's only unstable because they couldn't build a more aerodynamic stealthy shape using only flat surfaces (they used flat surfaces because the math for radar deflection depended on computer simulations, and computers couldn't do good enough calculations for curved surfaces in the late '70s).
Calling it a brick is really quite inaccurate. It had an amazingly narrow wingspan, but it's still a plane and it still produced sufficient lift to fly straight on a reasonable power budget. It wasn't stable without computer correction, but that doesn't mean it's a brick. It's not as if they simply strapped enough rockets onto a random shape to get it airborne.
Nature usually does it best! Would that more of our scientists tried harder to get their cues from it, rather than trying to fight it or destroy it.
It seems like the features they made in the steel were far larger than those on the scorpion's outer surface. I wonder why they needed to scale it up so much.
Nullius in verba
A scorpion in a sandstorm does not necessarily translate to aircraft speeds and atmospheric dust.
(And don't think aircraft designers haven't noticed the dimples on golf balls.)
The book that interested me enough to work in materials science was "Metals in the Service of Man" by Street and Alexander which I think had it's first edition in 1954. There's updated editions to at least 1989.
It eventually was called materials science because a lot of metallurgists were working on ceramics and polymers. It's interesting stuff but just about the first sort of job against the wall when a recession comes, so I had to turn the skills I'd picked up simulating the behaviour of materials with computers into a job wrangling computers.
(stewardess) Just switch from Hard Rock to the Easy Listening channel.
80's hair metal is not hard rock.
Oh never mind, the system was probably designed by someone tone deaf enough to think that dubstep is music instead of modem sounds.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I don't see how dressing up a male plane to look female would help keep it's paint protected from the dust, unless you completely cover it up in pantyhose and make-up.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
This is semi-news.
Similar results, even if not for abrasion, were found decades ago but for aerodynamics in general.
Microstructures in the shape of fish scale do improve aerodynamics considerbly. That it also helps abrasion is new.
What surface the carbon laminate dries as is not relevant. They put special radar-absorbing paint on top of the laminate. Also, the surface anomalies of the resin are too unpredictable to work reliably to absorb radar. The rest of the low radar profile is because the chance that an large surface is actually reflecting radar beams back exactly at the radar station is minimal if you make the surfaces as flat as possible, hence the sharp edges and "flat" surfaces of stealth design. The paint is actually not that wear resistant and hard to clean, compared to "regular" airplane paints.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
When can I paint my car with scorpion paint? I don't want it to wear a bra in public.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
How often does the scorpion molt or otherwise regenerate its exoskeleton? It's a bit tricky to do that with an aircraft.
Perhaps I'm wrong but scorpions, as living beings, are supposed to be able to fix possible carapace erosion, aren't they? I mean that an aircraft with an emulated scorpion surface would also be damaged in the long run. What would be really awesome is to create some sort of material with autoregenerating properties!
...and I have to admit I've never seen him suffer from atmospheric dust damage.
A similar effect was discovered years ago for Scincus scincus, or 'sand fish', a small reptile which can 'swim' under the surface of desert sand. Its skin (although shiny) is at a microscopic level very rough, so its basically similar to the shark skin effect, which was already mentioned here, too.
Here's the PubMed link to the actual journal paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22208552
So, like, Lucy is available now?
Yes their shell is good at deflecting dust particles, but does that mean that this same shell would be good for flying...? the whole concept of airplane carapace is to make sure there is no friction from the air running across it, I would like to see how the scorpions carapace would hold up in a wind tunnel made for testing airplanes.
Well written blurb
And boats (http://forum.miata.net/vb/archive/index.php/t-203528.html):
"Several years ago, 3M made a "fish scale" coating that was applied to the hulls of several boats competing for the America's Cup. I understand that this coating could indeed increase speed by reducing the friction between the hull and the water. The rough texture of the "fish scales" worked like millions of miniature vortex generators. A vortex generator creates a boundary layer between the surface of the solid body and the fluid (or air) that is moving around it. You might think of the eddies that are formed by these vortex generators as tiny roller bearings that reduce the friction between the surface and the moving fluid."
"tripping the boundary layer"
"A few years ago American Honda sent their riders to Japan for wind tunnel testing before the AMA Daytona 200 race. They designed custom shaped windscreens for each rider, depending on how they were able to tuck in (height and size). HRC also experimented with other areo tweaks. They had some tape that they put on the upper, on either side of the screen and an angle. I am going off of memory here, but I recall them having three of four pieces on each side. The tape was cut in a zig-zag pattern. It looked like that tape that seamstresses use when altering clothes. It supposedly made a noticeable improvement to how the air tumbled off the edges of the fairing. They had some good pictures of that on Superbikeplanet.com, but I can’t find them now."
"Racecar Engineering has an article on this exact topic in this months issue. They talk about a form of dimples being used in bicycle wheels. Dimples can be effective in certain areas, although it's a very tricky thing to make it work and it takes loads of aero testing to get actual benefit. If used correctly, they can help keep airflor laminar instead of going turbulent. Also, it's public knowledge in open-wheeled racing that there are some benefits to varying the roughness of a surface on certain panels/wings... although the details of this are closely guarded secrets. To me, it sounds like the benefits are so minor that they probably wouldn't bother if they weren't so handicapped by aerodynamic regulations, but since they are they need to eek out an advantage anywehre they can find one. Here is the intro for the article I mentioned, although you'll need to subscribe or visit your bookstore to read the entire thing http://www.racecar-engineering.com/content/feature_03.htm "
etc.
Groveling never works and simply empowers the woman. I was even accused of rape by one I grovelled to after she came to my home with the sole purpose of fucking me as part of the toying around.
You must treat women like total shit when they put up resistance and never ever act like you give a damn they are going to leave. Because here's the thing: You will not change their mind no matter what you do. One preserves your dignity and doesn't empower her. The other forfeits your dignity and empowers her. If she particularly doesn't like you, she may try to set you up for a rape accusation (charges were dropped after a year and she has apologized for it (12 years later)).
Had I not been groveling and just stopped calling her, she'd would have been back in my bed after a week and I could have dumped her cheating ass (and fucked her little ass while I was searching for a replacement).
But I grovelled like you and was toyed with for a month until she came over and had some mercy sex with me to set me up for a rape accusation. I should have never fucked her then and should have never grovelled and should have had another woman laying with me when she came back around.
Though, I think she might have said she was raped because her new boyfriend saw her car at my house that night and she was easy to interrogate and he was probably accusing her of having sex with me left and right. She was the type that would claim I forced her and not realize the fucking can of worms, pandoras box, genie out of the fucking bottle scenario that would create (she was only 18). I have not had a chance to find out the real reason, as she apologized through my father (who coincidentally is a school teacher at the school her son goes to). I also think she may have apologized to get on his good side (though he never had her kids in his class -- he refused and the principal has no problem making sure her kid is never in her class -- obviously, her spawn would most likely accuse him of some kind of molestation -- they are just those kind of people).
Grow up, you little faggot. I've given you some fine advice that you won't get yourself for 10 more years. You sound like an 18-23 year old dork that works at a shitty restaurant named Dean's who was involved in a dumbassed love triangle between two girls with very generic names. But I think the love triangle part is entirely in your head. Danielle was using you and moved out because she got tired of your creepiness and sense of entitlement to her love because she was mooching off you. Lucy was acting interested in you because young girls like to flirt and fuck with dorks' emotions. She never wanted to be more than a friend, and you have completely creeped her out.
Also, no one gives a flying fuck. You never had a chance with any of them. And you never will have a chance until you learn how to handle women.
...if scorpions could fly.
G.
Takes me back to a niche meme (spawned by a badly-written feature suggestion for a new alien playable class) among the Natural Selection mod community...