More information: Rodrigo Vilumbrales-Garcia et al, Adaptive drag reduction of a sphere using smart morphable skin, Flow (2025). DOI: 10.1017/flo.2025.7 ...

The researchers also found that the sphere’s level of water repellency plays a key role in the drag forces it experiences. This is where things get a bit counterintuitive.

The largest drag forces, for instance, were measured just prior to the sphere becoming fully submerged, meaning water is flowing all around it but there's still a small dry spot sticking out at ...

Golf ball dimples have long been known to reduce pressure drag by disrupting the boundary layer around the ball, allowing it to fly about 30% farther than a smooth sphere.

Drag study: Adaptive drag reduction of a sphere using smart morphable skin (DOI: 10.1017/flo.2025.7) Lift study: On the lift generation over a sphere using asymmetric roughness (DOI: 10.1063/5. ...