Erosion-Resistant Surfaces Inspired by Tamarisk

Tamarisk, a plant that thrives in arid and semi-arid regions, has adapted to blustery conditions by evolving extremely effective and robust anti-erosion surface patterns. However, the details of these unique properties and their structural basis are still unexplored. In this paper, we demonstrate that the tamarisk surface only suffers minor scratches under wind–sand mixture erosion. The results show that the anti-erosion property of bionic sample, inspired by tamarisk surface with different surface morphologies, can be attributed to the flow rotating in the grooves that reduces the particle impact speed. Furthermore, the simulation and experiment on the erosion wear behavior of the bionic samples and bionic centrifugal fan blades show that the bionic surface with V-type groove exhibits the best erosion resistance. The bionic surface on centrifugal fan blades with optimum parameters can effectively improve anti-erosion property by 28.97%. This paper show more opportunities for bionic application in improving the anti-erosion performance of moving parts that work under dirt and sand particle environment, such as helicopter rotor blades, airplane propellers, rocket motor nozzles, and pipes that regularly wear out from erosion.