Testing a Special Shaped Body of Revolution Similar to Dolphins Trunk

Abstract

Background. The high swimming velocities of some aquatic animals such as dolphins continue to attract great interest of researchers. The friction drag of the dolphin, estimated with the use of turbulent friction coefficient of the flat plate, was so high to declare that the dolphin should not be able to swim as fast as it does with the muscle power it possesses. Some previous tests of the rigid bodies, similar to the animal shapes, and gliding dolphins revealed the attached flow patterns. Nevertheless, the researchers connected with industrial applications believe that separation is inevitable on every smooth shape, provided no active boundary-layer control methods (e.g., suction) are applied.Objective. The aim of the paper is to test a special shaped rigid body of revolution in the wind tunnel in order to show that the boundary-layer separation can be removed without any active flow control methods.Methods. Wind tunnel tests were carried out at velocities 15, 35, and 55 m/s. Static pressure measurements and the oil-flow visualization were used. For this study, we take the UA-2 special shaped model of 200 mm length and 56.78 mm of the maximum diameter. The closed version of the UA-2c model is similar to the dolphin body. The tests were carried out in the subsonic wind tunnel MUB of the Institut für Strömungsmechanik (ISM) at Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany. The wind tunnel MUB of ISM is an actively cooled Goettingen type tunnel with a square section of 1.3 m and the turbulence level of about 0.2 %. The technique of oil-flow visualization was used to deliver information of the surface near flow. The color used is a mixture of thin mineral oil and petrol, in an optimized ratio. The very fine titan-dioxide particles and UV-light reactive polymer particles in the color deliver a high contrast picture of the flow directions with a high spatial resolution.Results. The distribution of the static pressure and the oil-flow visualization are presented at three angles of attack. The flow pattern at zero angle of attack is probably attached and laminar.Conclusions. Pressure measurements and the flow visualization on the special shaped body of revolution showed that it is probably possible to avoid separation in rather large range of the Reynolds numbers. Further experiments are necessary with the use of a visualization of the flow volume and hot-wire velocity probes to clarify the behavior of the boundary layer, its separation and laminar-to-turbulent transition characteristics.