whaletail
Latest
'Whale tail' makes ships fuel efficient by using wave power
There's no better way to develop more efficient marine vessels than to take cues from the animals that can effortlessly navigate the waters. In this case, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) led by postdoctoral fellow Eirik Bøckmann are working on a system inspired by a whale's tail to lower ships' fuel consumption. The mechanism looks more like flippers meant to be attached somewhere underneath the front part of the ship, but it undulates up and down as the vessel moves, just like a whale's tail. It's not the first system that takes after the majestic marine mammals, but previous attempts were designed quite differently.
