On the role of surface permeability for the control of flow around a circular cylinder

Abstract

The circular cylinder with porous materials coating (PMC) is studied in detail to reveal the sensitivity of surface permeability to the flow control and noise reduction. Two-dimensional simulations were firstly used to identify the critical values of permeability and thickness. Parametric study results show that, there is a critical permeability value which produces the minimum force fluctuation and maximum noise reduction. Additionally, the porous coating can work more efficient for noise reduction with larger thickness. The further three-dimensional simulation is employed to understand the underlying physical mechanisms of flow control. The results show that the spanwise vorticity is modified more than that of other directions and behaves more synergistically. The pressure field adjacent to the cylinder surface indicates that the adverse pressure gradient is changed to the favorable pressure gradient around the porous surface which contributes partly to the vortex shedding suppression.