Regulating turbulent separation by surface microstructures on a blunt plate

Abstract

Microstructured surfaces can induce secondary flow and regulate flow structures of the turbulent separation flow. However, the mechanism governing the relationship between the microstructure size and the characteristic flow size remains unclear. In this study, the separated flow over a blunt flat plate with surface microstructures is studied using time-resolved particle image velocimetry experiments and implicit large-eddy simulations for the plate-thickness-based Reynolds number from 5.08×103 to 1.31×104. The ratio of the height of microstructures to the plate thickness (h/d) ranges from 0.01 to 0.1. Combining experimental and numerical results, the relationships between the separation bubble size and the microstructure size under different Reynolds numbers exhibit similarity when normalized by the separation bubble size of the smooth plate. The dimensionless separation bubble size decreases when the microstructure height increases and large microstructures (h/d = 0.1) exhibit good performance on reducing the flow separation. Near the leading edge, the distortion of two-dimensional vortices and the generation of three-dimensional hairpin vortices are promoted by the first several rows of large microstructures. Additionally, in the main separation region, secondary positive spanwise vortices emerge from large microstructures. Subsequently, the secondary vortices lift up and evolve into streamwise vortices. The characteristic scale of secondary vortices is represented by a significant peak in the spectra of spanwise wavenumbers, which is of the same magnitude as the height of large microstructures. Furthermore, increasing the microstructure height weakens the streamwise correlation of the flow, and the characteristic scale of the correlation is comparable to the height of large microstructures.