Reducing Turbulence with Rough Skin

This is a very interesting result. As the article says, it has long been known that roughness trips the boundary layer and leads to drag-reducing flow separation. That's why there are dimples on golf balls - the drag-producing laminar boundary layer is destroyed and the ball goes farther than without the dimples. That's good. On the other hand, frost on an airplane wing (which is another form of roughness) is not so good because it can lead to flow separation and loss of lift. That's bad. Finally, it was reported some years ago that shark skin had very fine striations or grooves that affect the boundary layer and lead to much less drag than perfectly smooth skin. That's good (if you're a shark). By now I expect that many of these issues have been studied and are now well understood, but it's all fascinating nonetheless.

I thought that the reason for dimples on the ball is that it enables the spin the club puts on the ball to create lift, holding the ball in the air longer and allowing a shallower initial launch angle where almost 100% of the ball's velocity is in the horizontal direction vs. 70.7% for a 45 degree optimum launch in a vacuum.

Hi there all,

I'm Robbie Kleij (from the clay).

This also interest my construction of the solar powered vehicle,

I had just today had this discussion and thought that the velosity of a golf ball was incereased due to the dimples it has ( we referenced it a 50% less drag or 100% increase in velocity, quite inaccurate of course).

As I am making a solar powered vehicle I am presently contemplating creating dimples of a specified form to hold each solar panel, there by creating an air turbulence on a minor scale to reducing the heat from the solar panel, and making a protective sheald above the solar panel from the rim of the dimple thereby reducing drag.

It seems now from the previous comments, that I will be creating lift (as well?) from a construction of this kind.

And be able to specify the amount of lift by calculating a specific angle - tempered to the size shape and form (athsetics) of the body that glides through Air, over land Water and probably Snow.

Give up the dimple research...just leave a small gap for airflow between the roof and the panel if it is not integrated in the structure. Over engineering makes many products "a little better" but such that they aren't economically feasible to produce for a "market".