London, July 31 (ANI): If a plan to channel fluid intelligently around objects can be made to work, then super-stealthy submarines may one day glide through the water without creating a wake.
When a submarine glides through the water, it faces two issues: one, the water it's displacing as it moves forward creates drag, which causes it to slow down.
Two, the turbulent wake it creates due to water rushing in to fill the vacant space makes it is easily traceable.
The Fluid Cloak, developed by Yaroslav Urzhumov and David Smith of Duke University, aims to solve both problems at once.
The Cloak is a mesh shell that uses tiny pumps to boost the speed of fluid flowing around the object. The fluid closes seamlessly around the vehicle, as if it had never been there.
"It's possible to have this structure glide through the fluid without disturbing it at all," Urzhumov said.
Urzhumov argues that the fluid-cloaking pattern in this study could still reduce drag and weaken the wakes of larger and faster vehicles, even if it does not completely eliminate them, reports New Scientist. (ANI)
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