Researchers from Harvard University have successfully created a 3D-printed model of shark skin to show the scales help the animal swim.
Engineers have attempted to copy shark skin to use its roughness for designing swim suits and racing cars, according to BBC News.
The scientists scanned the animal's skin and found denticles, teeth-like scales that help sharks move efficiently.
The team used precision-based 3D printers to replicate the properties of the skin. The best the team was able to do was print out imitation skin featuring denticles ten times larger than those of a real life shark, 3DPrint reported.
Scientists tested the skin by putting it on flexible paddles. The results showed added an 6.6 percent increase in swimming speed.
The team had to use two different materials for the denticles and for the flexible base, BBC News reported.
New objects are built up layer-by-layer with 3D printing, and then receive a computer-generated design.
The scientists reportedly had trouble with the process, due to the denticles' shape.
"Because they're overhung, the 3D printers have to print a supporting material, which you then have to remove," said George Lauder, researcher at Harvard. "It took a while to work out all the tricks."
The new denticles also helped the paddle travel the same simulated distance with 5.9 percent less energy.
"That's a huge effect, when favored over the entire lifetime of an animal that is constantly swimming," Lauder said.
The team used a specialized technique to photograph the flow of water and found that the paddle's movement created a "leading edge vortex", a small whirlpool of low pressure. They discovered that the leading edge vortex was stronger with the denticles than without, BBC News reported.
"It could help suck the fish forward," Lauder said. "One of the things that our flow visualization has suggested is that the structure of the skin may actually increase the thrust - the engine of propulsion - rather than just reducing the drag."
Lauder said the complex process of creating shark-like swimming suits will prevent them from being developed for public use anytime soon, Tech Times reported.
"The manufacturing challenges are tremendous," he said.
The research was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
