Via NewScientistTech.com -
When a spherical object such as a ball is dropped onto water, it sometimes pierces the surface with a gentle “plop”, and sometimes slams through creating a big splash.
Lydéric Bocquet at the Claude-Bernard University in Lyon, France, and colleagues found these varied impacts a puzzling phenomenon. Why would two spheres of the same size, shape and material create such different effects?
Now Bocquet believes his team has found the answer: the molecular treatment of the surface of the spheres – whether it attracts or repels water – is paramount, he says.
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The finding could prove useful in reducing splashing that occurs during high-speed water impacts, for example during air-to-water torpedo entries, he says. Here, a nano-layer could prevent air bubbles forming at the tip of the torpedo.
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Does anyone remember the Russian Shkval (шквал) supercavitating torpedo?
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