Turbulent drag reduction over curved walls. (10th August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Banchetti, Jacopo; Luchini, Paolo; Quadrio, Maurizio
• Is Part Of: Journal of fluid mechanics. Volume 896(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-08-10
• Subjects: drag reduction, -- turbulence control, -- boundary layer control; Fluid mechanics -- Periodicals; 532.005
• DOI: 10.1017/jfm.2020.338
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-1120

Abstract

Abstract : Abstract : This work studies the effects of skin-friction drag reduction in a turbulent flow over a curved wall, with a view to understanding the relationship between the reduction of friction and changes to the total aerodynamic drag. Direct numerical simulations are carried out for an incompressible turbulent flow in a channel where one wall has a small bump; two bump geometries are considered, that produce mildly separated and attached flows. Friction drag reduction is achieved by applying streamwise-travelling waves of spanwise velocity (StTW). The local friction reduction produced by the StTW is found to vary along the curved wall, leading to a global friction reduction that, for the cases studied, is up to 10 % larger than that obtained in the plane wall case. Moreover, the modified skin friction induces non-negligible changes of pressure drag, which is favourably affected by StTW and globally reduces by up to 10 %. The net power saving, accounting for the power required to create the StTW, is positive and, for the cases studied, is one half larger than the net saving of the planar case. The study suggests that reducing friction at the surface of a body of complex shape induces further effects, a simplistic evaluation of which might lead to underestimating the total drag reduction.