Numerical investigation of the hydrodynamic drag of a circular cylinder coated with a thin layer of magnetic fluid

Abstract

In order to reduce the drag of bodies in a viscous flow it has been proposed to apply to the surface exposed to the flow a layer of magnetic fluid, which can be retained by means of a magnetic field and thus act as a lubricant between the external flow and the body [1, 2]. In [1] the hydrodynamic drag of a current-carrying cylindrical conductor coated with a uniform layer of magnetic fluid was theoretically investigated at small Reynolds numbers. In order to simplify the equations of motion, the Oseen approximation was introduced for the free stream and the Stokes approximation for the magnetic fluid [3]. This approach has led to the finding of an exact analytic solution from which it follows that at Reynolds numbers Re ≪ 1 the drag of the cylinder can be considerably reduced if the viscosity of its magnetic-fluid coating is much less than the viscosity of the flow. The main purpose of the present study is to investigate, with reference to the same problem, how the magnetic-fluid coating affects the hydrodynamic drag at Reynolds numbers 1 ⩽ Re ⩽ 102–103, i.e., under separated flow conditions. In this case the simplifications associated with neglecting the nonlinear inertial terms in the Navier—Stokes equation are inadmissible, so that a solution can be obtained only by numerical methods.