Characteristics of large- and small-scale structures in the turbulent boundary layer over a drag-reducing riblet surface

Abstract

Riblet is one of the most promising passive drag reduction techniques in turbulent flows. In this paper, hot-wire measurements on a turbulent boundary layer perturbed by a drag-reducing riblet surface are carried out to further understand the riblet effects on the turbulent flows and the drag reduction mechanism. Compared with the smooth case, different energy variations in the near-wall region and the logarithmic region are observed over riblets. Then, by using a spectral filter of a given wavelength, the time series of the hot-wire data are decomposed into large- and small-scale components. It is indicated that large-scale structures in the logarithmic region impose a footprint (amplitude modulating effect) on the near-wall small-scale structures. By quantifying this footprint, it is found that the interactions between large- and small-scale structures over riblets are weakened in the near-wall region. Furthermore, the bursting process of large and small scales is studied. For both large- and small-scale structures, a shorter bursting duration and a higher bursting frequency are observed over the riblet surface, which indicates that riblets impede the formation of large- and small-scale bursting events. The flow physics behind these phenomena are also discussed in detail.