An analysis of drag reduction using spanwise forcing on rough walls

Sina Nozarian, Mahdi Abkar, Pourya Forooghi*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Spanwise opposed wall-jet forcing has been shown to reduce the skin-friction drag of wall-bounded turbulent flows by suppressing the near-wall turbulent motion (Yao et al., 2018). In the present work, the response of this drag reduction mechanism to the presence of surface roughness is studied. To this end, direct numerical simulations of flow in smooth and rough plane channels at a matched friction Reynolds number (Reτ=180) are carried out. The roughness is generated by distributing discrete roughness elements at two different values of frontal solidity, namely 0.021 and 0.045. The roughness elements height is k+=18 (+indicates viscous scaling). By varying the forcing amplitude A+, it is shown that, when other forcing parameters are fixed, maximum drag reduction in a rough channel is achieved at a considerably larger A+ than in a smooth channel. Notably, the strength of the wall-jet at which the maximum drag reduction is achieved, is comparable for the smooth and both rough cases. Additionally, it is observed that the maximum drag reduction values attained in rough channels are smaller compared to those observed in smooth channels, for both lower and higher frontal solidity cases — 2.4% and 2%, respectively. The reduced drag reduction potential originates from two observations; firstly, drag on roughness elements, which is dominated by pressure drag, is not reduced by the method in question. Secondly, the drag on channel floor is reduced to a lesser extent when roughness elements are present. The latter can be attributed to the observation that, while in all cases the forcing suppresses streamwise random turbulent fluctuations and shear stress, this suppression is less pronounced when roughness elements are present.

Original languageEnglish
Article number109306
JournalInternational Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow
Volume106
Number of pages15
ISSN0142-727X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024

Keywords

  • Flow control
  • Spanwise forcing
  • Rough surface
  • Wall-bounded turbulence

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