Mechanisms and Factors Affecting Microbubble Drag Reduction in Ship
Drag is a mechanical force generated by a solid object moving through a fluid. For drag to be generated, the solid body must be in contact with the fluid. Drag is generated by the difference in velocity between the solid object and the fluid. Drag acts in the direction opposite to the direction of motion of the body. Microbubbles is a drag reduction device that reduces skin friction of a solid body moving in water by injecting small bubbles into the turbulent boundary layer developing on the solid body. Its application is confined to the ships, especially large ships. Ships such as tankers play a major role in marine transportation. They are very large and move very slowly. They are especially suited to microbubbles application. With the development of the Microbubbles technology almost 20 80% drag reduction is possible. In this paper we study about different drag reduction mechanisms and factor affecting net power saving in large ship.