In the year 2008 two young future engineers met in the successful TU Graz Racing Team. It was already very important for them to see and utilise all the opportunities to bring the race car to an optimum and to perfection. To optimize the aerodynamics, to find the perfect tyres, all components up to the driver should be optimized in their weight, that brings precious hundredths of a second on the racetrack, but there is not a lot of innovation power in it.

Many times nature was a model for great technical progress. One example for this is the hook and loop fastener. Like the burdock adheres since thousands of years on the fur of animals, humankind today closes thousands of hook and loop fasteners each day. The process of the application of models found in nature to innovative technical implementations is called bionic.

Sharks are known for their fast and persevered swimming in the sea. Is there any reason for this? Yes! If you look more closely on the scales of the shark you could recognize tiny grooves in the flow direction which other fish don´t have. The grooves just have a width of one micrometre and still they give the shark the crucial advantage.

By observing flow near surfaces a variety of vortexes of different sizes and in different directions can be recognized. A sandstorm in the desert exemplifies this phenomenon. The effect of the small grooves on the surface of the shark affects a reduction of the cross traverse of the vortexes and leads to a reduction of the effected friction loss.

bionic surface technologies succeeded in investigating the riblet-effect of the shark skin and furthermore transferring it to a reproducible riblet-foil. The patent-registered calculating algorithm and the expertise in CFD-simulations of the bionic surface-technicians guarantee the use of the ideal riblet-structure for different fields of applications.

The first steps out of the laboratory and the wind tunnel took the riblets in the air race sector and in the touring car series DTM. Bionic surface technologies does not only bring the airplanes and cars to perfections with riblets, also the experience in CFD simulations contributes to the successful aerodynamic modifications. Together with our partners we celebrated victories, championship titles and the success of bringing the shark skin in the air.

Today, the company bionic surface technologies has around 20 employees and is located on the 4th floor of the Business Center in Liebenau, next to the Liebenau stadium. In addition to a laboratory with various test benches, there is also a data center on 800 square meters, including a 1024 CPU cluster. This data center allows detailed simulations of all necessary components. This makes BST one of the largest CFD companies in Austria and one of the leading, globally operating companies in relation to Computational Fluid Dynamics, Riblets and Testing.

Now the time has come to implement riblets there where hundredths of seconds do not count, but efficiency and reduction of fuel consumption and emissions: the civil aviation. The number of airline passengers rises continuously and at the same time we are obligated to the reduction of emissions for the sake of nature. And with that we come to the beginning of our story. Imagine, you could lower the CO2 emissions in civil aviation around 8%…