Ships of tomorrow could glide through the water with less energy because of a technology developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Pittsburgh.
By coating grooves called riblets with superhydrophobic material, researchers can encase ship hulls in a pinned layer of air, allowing them to race through the waves faster while using about half the fuel.
Superhydrophobic riblets could impact a wide variety of applications that involve water by decreasing the drag force. The paper was published in the Proceedings of the ASME 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition.