Origin of effectiveness degradation in active drag reduction control of turbulent channel flow at Reτ = 1000

Abstract

ABSTRACTDirect numerical simulations of turbulent channel flows are performed with opposition control at Reτ = 180 and 1000. The drag reduction rate at the higher Reynolds number is reduced by 25% compared with that at the lower Reynolds number. In order to investigate the reason for the degradation of the control effectiveness, we examine the response of Reynolds stresses and coherent structures in both the outer and inner regions to the control and the role that large-scale motions play therein. In the outer region, the Reynolds stresses at different length scales are reduced at the same rate as the drag reduction rate, and conditionally averaged large-scale motions with spanwise scale larger than half channel width are still large-scale low-speed streaks flanked by a pair of large-scale counter-rotating streamwise vortices but with reduced velocity amplitudes. In the inner region, the effectiveness of the control in suppressing the turbulence deteriorates at the higher Reynolds number. In response to the superimposition effect of large-scale motions, the contribution to near-wall wall-parallel velocity fluctuations from large-scale motions becomes larger at the higher Reynolds number, while the suppression of large-scale motions by the control is weaker than that of near-wall coherent structures. In both controlled and uncontrolled cases, large-scale motions can modulate the amplitudes of near-wall coherent structures, and the attenuation of streamwise vortices by the control under large-scale high-speed streaks is significantly less effective than that under large-scale low-speed streaks. As a result, the effectiveness of control in suppressing near-wall coherent structures and Reynolds shear stresses becomes weaker at the higher Reynolds number. The quantitative analysis of the contributions to the drag reduction rate from outer and inner regions shows that the effectiveness of the control is mainly determined by the suppression degree of near-wall motions. Furthermore, budgets of streamwise enstrophy are analysed to reveal the interaction of large-scale motions with near-wall streamwise vorticity. The titling effect induced by large-scale motions is positive under large-scale high-speed streaks, but negative under large-scale low-speed streaks, which could be a possible way of large-scale motion to modulate streamwise vorticity. In the controlled cases, the positive titling effect induced by large-scale motions under large-scale high-speed streaks is even enhanced, while other terms in the budgets are reduced, which could explain the degradation of control effectiveness in suppressing near-wall streamwise vortices under large-scale high-speed streaks. Therefore, the loss in the drag reduction rate at the higher Reynolds number is due to the weakened control effectiveness on near-wall coherent structures, which are exposed to the modulation effect of large-scale motions.