Turbulent drag reduction in Taylor-Couette flows using different super-hydrophobic surface configurations

Abstract

Turbulent drag reduction (DR) in an incompressible Taylor-Couette flow configuration using different patterns of “idealized” superhydrophobic surfaces (SHS) on rotating inner-wall is investigated using direct numerical simulations (DNS). Three dimensional DNS studies based on the finite difference method in cylindrical annuli of aspect ratio (Γ) = 6.0 and radius ratios (η) = 0.5 and 0.67 have been performed at Reynolds numbers (Re) 4000 and 5000. The SHS comprised of streamwise or azimuthal microgrooves (MG), spanwise or longitudinal MG, grooves inclined to the streamwise direction (spiral), and microposts. The SHS have been modeled as shearfree areas. We were able to achieve a maximum DR up to 34% for the streamwise aligned SHS, while we got drag enhancement of 4% for the spiral SHS at η = 0.67. The SHS cause slip at the wall as well as near-wall turbulence modification, both governing the DR. We have tried to understand the role of the effective slip and modified turbulence dynamics responsible for DR by analyzing the statistics of mean flow, velocity fluctuations, Reynolds stresses, turbulence kinetic energy (TKE), and near-wall streaks. Most of the results show enhanced production of near-wall streamwise velocity fluctuations and TKE resulting in near-wall turbulence enhancement, yet we observed DR for most of the cases, thereby implying slip to be the dominant contributor to DR in comparison to modified near-wall turbulence.