Skin Friction Drag Reduction Research Articles

A numerical study on drag reduction of underwater vehicles using hydrophobic surfaces

During last decades, many investigations have been done to find suitable solutions to reduce the drag force of underwater vehicles. These attempts can be divided into two main categories: supercavitating vehicles and unseparated flow patterns. In this study, a novel approach is introduced which uses hydrophobic surfaces for an underwater vehicle with an unseparated flow body profile. Fluid slippage on hydrophobic walls can lead to a considerable reduction of skin friction drag. The effectiveness of this approach for underwater hulls has been examined numerically. In this regard, first, the numerical procedure is validated by comparing the numerical results for the slip flow over a micron-sized spherical particle with the analytical results available in the literature. Next, numerical simulations are performed for an unseparated flow profile at various values of the sliding coefficients. Results show that the principal drag of such profiles is the skin friction drag which can be drastically reduced using hydrophobic surfaces. For the sliding coefficients smaller than 10, the drag coefficient of the underwater vehicle with an unseparated flow profile can be even lower than that of a supercavitating hull.

Can large-scale oblique undulations on a solid wall reduce the turbulent drag?

Direct numerical simulations of fully developed turbulent channel flows with wavy walls are undertaken. The wavy walls, skewed with respect to the mean flow direction, are introduced as a means of emulating a Spatial Stokes Layer (SSL) induced by in-plane wall motion. The transverse shear strain above the wavy wall is shown to be similar to that of a SSL, thereby affecting the turbulent flow and leading to a reduction in the turbulent skin-friction drag. However, some important differences with respect to the SSL case are brought to light too. In particular, the phase variations of the turbulent properties are accentuated and, unlike in the SSL case, there is a region of increased turbulence production over a portion of the wall, above the leeward side of the wave, thus giving rise to a local increase in dissipation. The pressure- and friction-drag levels are carefully quantified for various flow configurations, exhibiting a combined maximum overall-drag reduction of about 0.6%. The friction-drag reduction is shown to behave approximately quadratically for small wave slopes and then linearly for higher slopes, whilst the pressure-drag penalty increases quadratically. The transverse shear-strain layer is shown to be approximately Reynolds-number independent when the wave geometry is scaled in wall units.

Drag reduction using wrinkled surfaces in high Reynolds number laminar boundary layer flows

Inspired by the design of the ribbed structure of shark skin, passive drag reduction methods using stream-wise riblet surfaces have previously been developed and tested over a wide range of flow conditions. Such textures aligned in the flow direction have been shown to be able to reduce skin friction drag by 4%–8%. Here, we explore the effects of periodic sinusoidal riblet surfaces aligned in the flow direction (also known as a “wrinkled” texture) on the evolution of a laminar boundary layer flow. Using numerical analysis with the open source Computational Fluid Dynamics solver OpenFOAM, boundary layer flow over sinusoidal wrinkled plates with a range of wavelength to plate length ratios (λ/L), aspect ratios (2A/λ), and inlet velocities are examined. It is shown that in the laminar boundary layer regime, the riblets are able to retard the viscous flow inside the grooves creating a cushion of stagnant fluid that the high-speed fluid above can partially slide over, thus reducing the shear stress inside the grooves and the total integrated viscous drag force on the plate. Additionally, we explore how the boundary layer thickness, local average shear stress distribution, and total drag force on the wrinkled plate vary with the aspect ratio of the riblets as well as the length of the plate. We show that riblets with an aspect ratio of close to unity lead to the highest reduction in the total drag, and that because of the interplay between the local stress distribution on the plate and stream-wise evolution of the boundary layer the plate has to exceed a critical length to give a net decrease in the total drag force.

Drag reduction via turbulent boundary layer flow control

Turbulent boundary layer control (TBLC) for skin-friction drag reduction is a relatively new technology made possible through the advances in computational-simulation capabilities, which have improved the understanding of the flow structures of turbulence. Advances in micro-electronic technology have enabled the fabrication of active device systems able to manipulating these structures. The combination of simulation, understanding and micro-actuation technologies offers new opportunities to significantly decrease drag, and by doing so, to increase fuel efficiency of future aircraft. The literature review that follows shows that the application of active control turbulent skin-friction drag reduction is considered of prime importance by industry, even though it is still at a low technology readiness level (TRL). This review presents the state of the art of different technologies oriented to the active and passive control for turbulent skin-friction drag reduction and contributes to the improvement of these technologies.

Liquid-infused surfaces as a passive method of turbulent drag reduction

Liquid-infused surfaces present a novel, passive method of turbulent drag reduction. Inspired by the Nepenthes Pitcher Plant, liquid-infused surfaces utilize a lubricating fluid trapped within structured roughness to facilitate a slip at the effective surface. The conceptual idea is similar to that of superhydrophobic surfaces, which rely on a lubricating air layer, whereas liquid-infused surfaces use a preferentially wetting liquid lubricant to create localized fluid–fluid interfaces. Maintaining the presence of these slipping interfaces has been shown to be an effective method of passively reducing skin friction drag in turbulent flows. Given that liquid-infused surfaces have only recently been considered for drag reduction applications, there is no available framework to relate surface and lubricant characteristics to any resulting drag reduction. Here we use results from direct numerical simulations of turbulent channel flow over idealized, liquid-infused grooves to demonstrate that the drag reduction achieved using liquid-infused surfaces can be described using the framework established for superhydrophobic surfaces. These insights can be used to explain drag reduction results observed in experimental studies of lubricant-infused surfaces. We also demonstrate how a liquid-infused surface can reduce drag even when the viscosity of the lubricant exceeds that of the external fluid flow, which at first glance can seem counter-intuitive.

Transition scenario and transition control of the flow over a semi-infinite square leading-edge plate

In recent investigations of the flow over a square leading-edge flat plate, elliptic instability and transient growth of perturbations are proposed to explain the turbulent transition mechanism of the separating and reattaching flow reported in early experimental visualizations. An original transition scenario as well as a transition control method is presented by a detailed numerical study in this paper. The transient growth of perturbations in the separation bubble induces the primary instability that causes the 2D unsteady flow consisting of Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) vortices. The pairing instability of the KH vortices induces the subharmonic secondary instability, and then resonance transition occurs. The streamwise Lorentz force as the control input is applied in the recirculation region where the separation bubble generates. The maximum energy amplification magnitude of perturbations takes a linear attenuation with the interaction number; thus, the primary instability is reduced under control. The interaction number represents the strength of the streamwise Lorentz force relative to the inertial force of the fluid. The reduced primary instability is not strong enough to induce the secondary instability, so the flow is globally stable under control. Three-dimensional direct numerical simulation confirms the results of the linear stability analysis. Although the growth rate of the convectively unstable secondary instability is limited by the flow field scale, the feedback loop of the energy transfer promotes the resonance transition. However, as the separation bubble scale is reduced and the feedback loop is broken by the streamwise Lorentz force, the three-dimensional transition is suppressed and a skin-friction drag reduction is achieved.

Skin-friction drag reduction in a channel flow with streamwise-aligned plasma actuators

Direct Numerical Simulations in a turbulent channel flow at a moderate Reynolds number are performed in order to investigate the potential of Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuators for the reduction of the skin-friction drag. The idea is to use a sparse array of streamwise-aligned plasma actuators to produce near-wall spanwise-orientated jets in order to destroy the events which transport high-speed fluid towards the wall. It is shown that it is possible to reduce the drag by about 33.5% when the streamwise-aligned actuators are configured to generate appropriate spanwise-orientated jets very close to the wall so that the sweeps which are mainly responsible for the skin-friction are destroyed. We demonstrate that it is possible to achieve significant drag reduction with a sparse array of streamwise-aligned plasma actuators, with one order of magnitude less actuators than previous experiments in a similar set-up.

Turbulent boundary layer under the control of different schemes.

This work explores experimentally the control of a turbulent boundary layer over a flat plate based on wall perturbation generated by piezo-ceramic actuators. Different schemes are investigated, including the feed-forward, the feedback, and the combined feed-forward and feedback strategies, with a view to suppressing the near-wall high-speed events and hence reducing skin friction drag. While the strategies may achieve a local maximum drag reduction slightly less than their counterpart of the open-loop control, the corresponding duty cycles are substantially reduced when compared with that of the open-loop control. The results suggest a good potential to cut down the input energy under these control strategies. The fluctuating velocity, spectra, Taylor microscale and mean energy dissipation are measured across the boundary layer with and without control and, based on the measurements, the flow mechanism behind the control is proposed.

Skin-friction drag reduction in a high-Reynolds-number turbulent boundary layer via real-time control of large-scale structures

While large-scale motions are most energetic in the logarithmic region of a high-Reynolds-number turbulent boundary layer, they also have an influence in the inner-region. In this paper we describe an experimental investigation of manipulating the large-scale motions and reveal how this affects the turbulence and skin-friction drag. A boundary layer with a friction Reynolds number of 14 400 is controlled using a spanwise array of nine wall-normal jets operated in an on/off mode and with an exit velocity that causes the jets in cross-flow to penetrate within the log-region. Each jet is triggered in real-time with an active controller, driven by a time-resolved footprint of the large-scale motions acquired upstream. Nominally, the controller injects air into large-scale zones with positive streamwise velocity fluctuations; these zones are associated with positive wall-shear stress fluctuations. This control scheme reduced the streamwise turbulence intensity in the log-region up to a downstream distance of more than five times the boundary layer thickness, δ, from the point of actuation. The highest reduction in spectral energy—more than 30%—was found for wavelengths larger than 5δ in the log-region at 1.7δ downstream of actuation, while scales larger than 2δ still comprised more than 15% energy reduction in the near-wall region. In addition, a 3.2% reduction in mean skin-friction drag was achieved at 1.7δ downstream of actuation. Our reductions of the streamwise turbulence intensity and mean skin-friction drag exceed a base line control-case, for which the jet actuators were operated with the same temporal pattern, but not synchronised with the incoming large-scale zones of positive fluctuating velocity.

Stream-wise distribution of skin-friction drag reduction on a flat plate with bubble injection

To investigate the stream-wise distribution of skin-friction drag reduction on a flat plate with bubble injection, both experiments and simulations of bubble drag reduction (BDR) have been conducted in this paper. Drag reductions at various flow speeds and air injection rates have been tested in cavitation tunnel experiments. Visualization of bubble flow pattern is implemented synchronously. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method, in the framework of Eulerian-Eulerian two fluid modeling, coupled with population balance model (PBM) is used to simulate the bubbly flow along the flat plate. A wide range of bubble sizes considering bubble breakup and coalescence is modeled based on experimental bubble distribution images. Drag and lift forces are fully modeled based on applicable closure models. Both predicted drag reductions and bubble distributions are in reasonable concordance with experimental results. Stream-wise distribution of BDR is revealed based on CFD-PBM numerical results. In particular, four distinct regions with different BDR characteristics are first identified and discussed in this study. Thresholds between regions are extracted and discussed. And it is highly necessary to fully understand the stream-wise distribution of BDR in order to establish a universal scaling law. Moreover, mechanism of stream-wise distribution of BDR is analysed based on the near-wall flow parameters. The local drag reduction is a direct result of near-wall max void fraction. And the near-wall velocity gradient modified by the presence of bubbles is considered as another important factor for bubble drag reduction.

Energy efficiency and performance limitations of linear adaptive control for transition delay

A reactive control technique with localised actuators and sensors is used to delay the transition to turbulence in a flat-plate boundary-layer flow. Through extensive direct numerical simulations, it is shown that an adaptive technique, which computes the control law on-line, is able to significantly reduce skin-friction drag in the presence of random three-dimensional perturbation fields with linear and weakly nonlinear behaviour. An energy budget analysis is performed in order to assess the net energy saving capabilities of the linear control approach. When considering a model of the dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD) plasma actuator, the energy spent to create appropriate actuation force inside the boundary layer is of the same order as the energy gained from reducing skin-friction drag. With a model of an ideal actuator a net energy gain of three orders of magnitude can be achieved by efficiently damping small-amplitude disturbances upstream. The energy analysis in this study thus provides an upper limit for what we can expect in terms of drag-reduction efficiency for linear control of transition as a means for drag reduction.

Modeling of Transverse Gaps Effects on Boundary-Layer Transition

Delaying laminar-turbulent transition is considered a crucial issue with respect to the reduction of airplanes’ environmental impact, allowing the reduction of skin friction drag and thus fuel consumption. As part of this theme, boundary-layer destabilizing effects of surface imperfections (assembly gaps, steps, rivets, waviness, and holes) have been investigated by ONERA scientists for many years. Experimental, numerical, and theoretical works provided fruitful results partly described in this paper, which especially focuses on gaps effects. Geometrical triggering criteria were searched and found to reproduce transition at a realistic chord percentage on reduced scale models. More recently, predicting the impact of gaps on laminar flow transition was also studied so as to provide a numerical tool for defining tolerances compatible with natural laminar flow airfoils. A specific model based on a approach has been developed to quantify the transition displacement caused by transverse gaps with a rectangular section. Detailed experimental studies that recently contributed to its validation are also presented in this paper.

Global effect of local skin friction drag reduction in spatially developing turbulent boundary layer

A numerical investigation of two locally applied drag-reducing control schemes is carried out in the configuration of a spatially developing turbulent boundary layer (TBL). One control is designed to damp near-wall turbulence and the other induces constant mass flux in the wall-normal direction. Both control schemes yield similar local drag reduction rates within the control region. However, the flow development downstream of the control significantly differs: persistent drag reduction is found for the uniform blowing case, whereas drag increase is found for the turbulence damping case. In order to account for this difference, the formulation of a global drag reduction rate is suggested. It represents the reduction of the streamwise force exerted by the fluid on a plate of finite length. Furthermore, it is shown that the far-downstream development of the TBL after the control region can be described by a single quantity, namely a streamwise shift of the uncontrolled boundary layer, i.e. a changed virtual origin. Based on this result, a simple model is developed that allows the local drag reduction rate to be related to the global one without the need to conduct expensive simulations or measurements far downstream of the control region.

Numerical Study on Mechanism of Drag Reduction by Microblowing Technique on Supercritical Airfoil

AbstractNumerical studies on the applications of the microblowing technique (MBT) on a supercritical airfoil are performed based on a microporous wall model (MPWM) to represent the macroscaled collective characteristics of the huge number of microjets. The influences on the aerodynamic characteristics by microblowing with a MBT zone on different locations are analyzed. It is found that a MBT zone near the leading edge of the airfoil could achieve more reduction of skin-friction drag than a zone near the trailing edge. While for pressure drag, microblowing does not always result in a pressure drag penalty but could even reduce the pressure drag if the MBT porous zone is arranged on the region near the trailing edge. For the flow field without a shock wave, the MBT zone should be arranged on the lower wall and near the trailing edge. The typical configuration followed this guideline could simultaneously decrease the pressure drag and skin-friction drag while also increasing the lift. Numerical results indic...

Reynolds-number dependence of turbulent skin-friction drag reduction induced by spanwise forcing

This paper examines how increasing the value of the Reynolds number $Re$ affects the ability of spanwise-forcing techniques to yield turbulent skin-friction drag reduction. The considered forcing is based on the streamwise-travelling waves of spanwise-wall velocity (Quadrio et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 627, 2009, pp. 161–178). The study builds upon an extensive drag-reduction database created via direct numerical simulation of a turbulent channel flow for two fivefold separated values of $Re$, namely $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}=200$ and $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}=1000$. The sheer size of the database, which for the first time systematically addresses the amplitude of the forcing, allows a comprehensive view of the drag-reducing characteristics of the travelling waves, and enables a detailed description of the changes occurring when $Re$ increases. The effect of using a viscous scaling based on the friction velocity of either the non-controlled flow or the drag-reduced flow is described. In analogy with other wall-based drag-reduction techniques, like riblets for example, the performance of the travelling waves is well described by a vertical shift of the logarithmic portion of the mean streamwise velocity profile. Except when $Re$ is very low, this shift remains constant with $Re$, at odds with the percentage reduction of the friction coefficient, which is known to present a mild, logarithmic decline. Our new data agree with the available literature, which is however mostly based on low-$Re$ information and hence predicts a quick drop of maximum drag reduction with $Re$. The present study supports a more optimistic scenario, where for an airplane at flight Reynolds numbers a drag reduction of nearly 30 % would still be possible thanks to the travelling waves.

Turbulent drag reduction using active control of buoyancy forces

The present study involves Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of a turbulent channel flow subject to spatially modulated thermal forcing with a special interest to realize reduction of skin-friction drag. Thermal forcing has been employed using both streamwise and transverse arrays of heated strips on the bottom wall of the channel. The simulations have been carried out for a fixed friction Reynolds number Reτ=180 with friction Richardson number Riτ varying from 15 to 30. The periodic transverse strips exhibited an increase in skin-friction drag with a decrease in the width of hot strips though wider hot strips exhibit a slight decrease in skin-friction drag. Streamwise periodic strips exhibited a reduction in skin-friction drag of the order of 8% with an increasing trend in reduction of friction drag with increasing Riτ. The mechanism responsible for turbulent skin-friction drag reduction due to streamwise thermal forcing affects two processes, namely: (a) advection of streamwise kinetic energy from the buffer-layer to outer layer by the wall-normal buoyancy forces leading to formation of broader low-speed streaks over the heated regions and (b) brings about suppression of cross-flow fluctuating velocities which in turn weakens the transient growth of the turbulent streaks.

Freeman Scholar Review: Passive and Active Skin-Friction Drag Reduction in Turbulent Boundary Layers

A variety of skin-friction drag reduction (FDR) methods for turbulent boundary layer (TBL) flows are reviewed. Both passive and active methods of drag reduction are discussed, along with a review of the fundamental processes responsible for friction drag and FDR. Particular emphasis is given to methods that are applicable to external hydrodynamic flows where additives are diluted by boundary layer entrainment. The methods reviewed include those based on engineered surfaces (riblets, large eddy breakup devices (LEBUs), and superhydrophobic surfaces (SHS)), those based on additives (polymer injection and gas injection), and those based on morphological alterations in the boundary layer flow (air layers and partial cavity formation). A common theme for all methods is their disruption of one or more of the underlying physical processes responsible for the production of skin-friction drag in a TBL. Opportunities and challenges for practical implementation of FDR techniques are also discussed.

Hydrodynamic Resistance Reduction of Multi-Purpose Amphibious Vehicle due to Air Bubble Effect

Multipurpose Amphibious Vehicles (MAV) and other blunt shaped floating vehicles encounter the problem of a large bow wave forming and hydrodynamic resistance at high speeds. This wave formation is accompanied by higher resistance and at a critical speed results in bow submerging or swamping. Three new shapes of hull bow design for the multipurpose amphibious vehicle were conducted at several speeds to investigate the hydrodynamic phenomena using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD, RANS code), which is applied by Ansys-CFX14.0 and Maxsurf. The vehicle’s hydrodynamic bow shapes were able to break up induced waves and avoid swamping. Comparative results with the vehicle fitted with U-shape, V-shape and Flat-shape of hull bow, showed that the U-shape of the hull bow has reduced the total resistance to 20.3% and 13.6% compared with the V-shape and flat shape respectively. Though, the U-shape of hull bow is capable to increase the amphibious operating life and speed of vehicle. Also it has ability to reduce the vehicle’s required power, fossil fuel consumption and wetted hull surface. On the other hand, the use of air cushions to support marine vehicles, heavy floating structures and in other operation is well known. The main problem in Multi-purpose Amphibious Vehicles (MAV) is the amount of power needed in order to overcome the hydrodynamic resistance acting on the hull which is included the frictional and pressure resistances. Therefore, more power is needed to move the MAV forward. In this respect, more fuel will be required to operate the amphibious vehicles. This problem could be effectively reduced by the introduction of the air cushion concept. With the air being drawn from top of craft to the cavity below the hull will produce some cushioning effect and also help to reduce skin friction drag. In this paper, air cushion effect will be studied in rigid surface cavity instead of using flexible skirts. This would avoid the problem of high maintenance due to replacement of damaged skirts. Finally, the MAV will be supported using air cavity and bubbles generated by an air pump (compressor and air pressure vessel) to pushes the hull of multi-purpose amphibious vehicle up and reduce the frictional resistance due to draft and wetted surface reduction and layer of air between hull surface and water. This research would be done via CFD (ANSYS-CFX 14.0) and analyzed the hydrodynamic resistance

Shear stress and noise metric reduction using active vibration

The effects of active vibrational surface on wall shear stress and noise metric have been researched by the computational fluid dynamics method. The skin-friction drag and noise metric can be decreased by the active surface control. A sinusoidal vibration was imposed on the surface of a plate and the vibrational position located on downstream of the plate leading edge. The turbulence boundary layer was fully developed at the vibrational position. The downstream skin-friction drag exhibited a strong dependence on the control parameters (oscillation frequency and amplitude). A reduction in the trailing edge noise was obtained by the increasing of vibrational frequency and the appropriate choosing of amplitude. The maximum reduction in local skin friction drag is 64.3%. The noise metric can be decreased by 37.9 dB. Comparing the near-wall flow structures with and without control, it can be found that the turbulent kinetic energy and characteristic turbulence length scale were changed by the control.

Shear stress and noise metric reduction using active vibration

The effects of active vibrational surface on wall shear stress and noise metric have been researched by the computational fluid dynamics method. The skin-friction drag and noise metric can be decreased by the active surface control. A sinusoidal vibration was imposed on the surface of a plate and the vibrational position located on downstream of the plate leading edge. The turbulence boundary layer was fully developed at the vibrational position. The downstream skin-friction drag exhibited a strong dependence on the control parameters (oscillation frequency and amplitude). A reduction in the trailing edge noise was obtained by the increasing of vibrational frequency and the appropriate choosing of amplitude. The maximum reduction in local skin friction drag is 64.3%. The noise metric can be decreased by 37.9 dB. Comparing the near-wall flow structures with and without control, it can be found that the turbulent kinetic energy and characteristic turbulence length scale were changed by the control.