Drag reduction in cylindrical wake flow using porous material

Abstract

Due to its unique pore structure, porous materials have the potential to be used in the fields of acoustic noise reduction and flow drag reduction control. In order to study their effects and mechanism of drag reduction on the flow around a circular cylinder, experiments are conducted in a low-speed wind tunnel with low turbulence intensity. The drag forces acting on a circular cylinder model are measured using wind tunnel balance when porous materials with different permeability are applied within different intersection angles on the trailing-edge and leading edge, and the flow fields are visualized with a particle image velocimetry system with high time resolution. The method of dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) is also used for reduced-order analysis of the vorticity field in the wake of the cylinder. The measured drag forces and wake flow fields are then compared with those of a smooth cylinder, and the results show that porous materials laid on the trailing-edge can reduce drag, when a porous material with 20 pores per inch is laid within 270° on the leeward side, the best effect of the drag reduction ratio of 10.21% is reached. The results of flow visualization indicate that after the porous material is applied, the vortex region in the wake of the cylinder is expanded; both the frequency of vortex shedding and the magnitude of vorticity fluctuation decrease; the Reynolds-shear-stress decreases significantly, and both indicate that vorticity is dissipated earlier. The results of DMD analysis show that porous materials can effectively relax the energy of vortices in different modes.