Study on turbulence drag reduction of riblet plate in hypersonic turbulent flows

Abstract

This paper focuses on turbulence drag reduction of riblet plate in hypersonic turbulent flows. We use direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large eddy simulation (LES) to simulate three-dimensional spatially-developing boundary layer over the flat plate and riblet plate with a free-stream Mach number [Formula: see text]. The results reveal the influence of different riblet heights [Formula: see text] and riblet distances [Formula: see text] on drag reduction effect. The drag reduction effect increases with the increase of riblet height and the decrease of riblet distance within suitable range of parameter values. Through analysis, it can be seen that the riblet plate affects the turbulent contribution of the skin friction by suppressing or destroying the large-scale vortex structure. Combined with the actual engineering design requirements, we can use the riblet plate with appropriate parameters to achieve the purpose of turbulence control.