- Full title LATEXDRED: Laser Texturation for Drag Reduction
- Funding entity Unión Europea
- Researchers Fernando López Peña, Vicente Díaz Casás, Richard J Duro Fernández, Pablo Fariñas Alvariño, Anne Gosset, Marcos Míguez González, Abraham Prieto García, Marcos Lema Rodríguez
- Start date 01/10/2010
- End date 30/09/2013
- AZTI Tecnalia
- Clipso
- Englobe
- IFTH L'Institute Francais de l'habillement et du textile
- Irepa Laser
- Seland S.A.
- Universidad del País Vasco
- Universidade da Coruña
Description
Latexdred is a European project within the framework of the FP7 LEADERA initiative carried out from September 2010 to September 2013. Its aim was to reproduce a sharkskin pattern on a fabric developed specifically for the project. The ultimate goal was to manufacture a swimsuit to be used in competitions and reduce the effects of hydrodynamic resistance. The project partners were the IREPA-LASER, IFTH and AZTI-Tecnalia technology centres and the following universities: the University of the Basque Country (UPV / EHU) Univerisdad Politécnica of Madrid (UPM) and University of A Coruña (UDC). Furthermore, there were other collaborating entities, such as the Business Clipso, Covers and Seland companies from the regions of Lorraine (France), Basque Country, Madrid and Galicia (Spain).
Project tasks could be grouped into two large blocks. The first one dealt with the description and statistical analysis of the morphology, size, shape, orientation and density of the sharkskin scales. The second section focused on a hydrodynamic study of different models from both a computational and an experimental point of view. The tasks assigned to the GII covered the entire experimental part of this block.