Research progress and development trend of the drag reduction inspired by fish skin

The integration of creatures and nature has become more and more perfect during biological evolution. Unique structure characteristics, material properties, and special functions of organisms can provide an inexhaustible source for human scientific thoughts, technological inventions, and solutions to engineering and technical problems. The high-speed swimming capacity of aquatic organisms has long attracted growing attention in recent years. Underwater drag reduction is a functional strategy formed by the long-term evolution of high-speed swimming organisms such as fish. Revealing the connection between the structure characteristics, mechanical properties of fish skin and drag reduction provides a feasible solution to the high surface frictional resistance. This paper reviews the topography characteristics and material properties, bionic fabricating, and drag reduction mechanism of fish skin. In the end, both existing problems and future research prospects of bionic surfaces are proposed. This paper may provide a better and more comprehensive understanding of the current research status of fish skin inspired drag reduction and provide a feasible reference for further revealing the excellent hydrodynamic performance of fish and solving the surface friction resistance on high-speed moving surfaces.