Investigation of vortical flow over bluff bodies with base cavities

Abstract

Based on our previous research about drag reduction in term of the base cavity length using two dimensional simulations, this paper describes a numerical study of a bluff body of which the number of base cavities is successively increased and the cavity geometries are also modified to assume different shapes. Here we attempt to find an effective configuration to reduce the drag by increasing the number of base cavities. The numerical simulations examining varied number of base cavities reveal the presence of different strength of vortices in the wake zone which is the reason why the drag coefficients are distinctly different for different cases. In the case with double and triple rectangular cavities, we use the pressure contours snapshots at successive time instants to describe the wake evolution. We further investigate the effect of variable base cavity shapes for a constant cavity length at an identical time instant. A total of two different geometries of base cavities are discussed here: the rectangular and the sinusoidal cavities with sharp and rounded trailing edges, respectively. The numerical results reveal that the former is an effective drag reduction configuration which can produce a significant base pressure recovery corresponding to the strength of the vortices shown in the pressure contour figures. While the latter shows no obvious reduction in drag coefficient and a similar intensity of vortex in the wake zone compared with the unmodified case. Reductions in drag are observed for all the investigated cavity configurations, and additionally it is found that the magnitude of the reduction bears a direct relationship with the number of the cavities up to a certain minimum value.