Polymer drag reduction with surface roughness in flat-plate turbulent boundary layer flow

Experimental results from a study of surface roughness effects on polymer drag reduction in a zero-pressure gradient flat-plate turbulent boundary layer are presented. Both slot-injected polymer and homogeneous polymer ocean cases were considered over a range of flow conditions and surface roughness. Balance measurements of skin friction drag reduction are presented. Drag reductions over 60% were measured for both the injected and homogeneous polymer cases even with fully rough surfaces. As the roughness increased, higher polymer concentration was required to achieve a given level of drag reduction for the homogeneous case. With polymer injection, increasing surface roughness caused the drag reduction to decrease to low levels more quickly when the polymer expenditure was decreased or the freestream velocity was increased. However, the percent drag reductions on the rough surfaces with polymer injection were often substantially larger than on the smooth surface. Remarkably, in some cases, the skin friction drag force on a rough surface with polymer injection was less than the drag force observed on a smooth surface at comparable conditions. An erratum to this article can be found at     

The influence of the type of gas on the reduction of skin friction drag by microbubble injection

The influence of the type of gas on the performance of microbubble skin friction reduction was investigated on an axisymmetric body. Gases were selected which covered a wide range of densities and solubilities. Integrated skin friction measurements, which span a range of velocities (U _∞) from roughly 10 to 20 m/s and tunnel pressures from 1 to 2.6 atm, are presented as a function of gas flow rate. All gases show qualitatively similar behavior. The gas volume flowrate, referenced to injector ambient conditions (tunnel temperature and pressure), is shown to correlate the drag reducing behavior of all the gases at one velocity, independent of pressure. A normalization based on the volume flowrate through the turbulent boundary layer is shown to nearly collapse all the results independent of velocity or pressure. The results indicate that high ambient pressures may degrade the drag reducing capabilities of highly soluble gases.     

Possibility of drag reduction usingd-type roughness

An experiment was carried out in a low-speed wind tunnel to study the turbulence structure of the boundary layer over a two-dimensional square cavity on a flat plate. The main purpose of this investigation is to examine the way a square cavity modifies the near-wall structure of the turbulent boundary layer leading to a possible drag reduction overd-type roughness. The experimental results on pressure coefficient and friction coefficient indicated a small reduction in total drag in this configuration. This seems to be due to the stable vortex flow observed within the cavity which absorbs and reorganizes the incoming turbulence in the cavity, thereby modifying the near-wall turbulence structure of the boundary layer. The resultant turbulence structure was very similar to that over drag-reducing riblets surface.     

Influence of wavy structured surfaces and large scale polymer structures on drag reduction

Drag reduction was studied for turbulent flow over a structured wall that contained 600 sinusoidal waves with a wavelength of 5 mm and an amplitude of 0.25 mm. A concentrated solution of a co-polymer of polyacrylamide and sodium acrylate was injected into the flow through wall slots. Laser Doppler velocimetry was used to measure turbulence. A fluorescence technique was developed that enabled us to demonstrate the existence, under certain circumstances, of large gelatinous structures in the injected polymer solution and in the flow channel.At maximum drag reduction, the Reynolds shear stress was zero and the velocity field was the same as found for a smooth surface. Larger drag reductions could be realized for a wavy wall because the initial drag was larger. The influences of polymers on the turbulent fields are similar for smooth and wavy boundaries. These results are of interest since the interaction with the wall can be quite different for water flow over smooth and wavy boundaries (which are characterized as being completely rough). An important effect of polymers is a decreasing relative importance of high frequency fluctuations with increasing drag reduction that is characterized by a cut-off frequency. This cut-off is the same for smooth and wavy walls at maximum drag reduction. The sensitivity of drag reduction to the method of preparing and delivering the polymer solution suggests that aggregation of polymers could be playing an important role for the system that was studied. For example, drag reduction was enhanced when large polymer structures are present.     

Possibility of drag reduction usingd-type roughness

An experiment was carried out in a low-speed wind tunnel to study the turbulence structure of the boundary layer over a two-dimensional square cavity on a flat plate. The main purpose of this investigation is to examine the way a square cavity modifies the near-wall structure of the turbulent boundary layer leading to a possible drag reduction overd-type roughness. The experimental results on pressure coefficient and friction coefficient indicated a small reduction in total drag in this configuration. This seems to be due to the stable vortex flow observed within the cavity which absorbs and reorganizes the incoming turbulence in the cavity, thereby modifying the near-wall turbulence structure of the boundary layer. The resultant turbulence structure was very similar to that over drag-reducing riblets surface.     

Drag characteristics of longitudinal and transverse riblets at low dimensionless spacings

A surface grooved with microscopic riblets aligned parallel to the flow is an effective means to reduce the turbulent skin friction up to 10% compared to a smooth surface. The maximum drag reduction is found for a dimensionless rib spacing s ⁺ in the range of 15–17. For s ⁺ < 10, a linear behaviour of the drag reduction curve is predicted by viscous theory. This linear slope of the drag reduction curve is in contradiction to Schlichting’s postulation of a hydraulically smooth behaviour of small-scale roughness in a turbulent flow. This regime of evanescent dimensionless rib spacings is investigated experimentally by direct wall shear stress measurements in a fully developed channel flow. Additionally, a numerical calculation of the viscous flow over riblets was carried out to predict the drag reducing behaviour. The experimental results show a linear drag reducing behaviour down to s ⁺ = 0.3, which is in good agreement with the numerical results of the viscous simulation. The postulation of Schlichting’s hydraulically smooth regime of a rough surface was not confirmed, neither for a riblet surface nor for a surface geometry with grooves oriented perpendicular to the flow. In the latter case, the drag increases as a quadratic function of the roughness height.     

Bluff-body drag reduction using a deflector

A passive flow control on a generic car model was experimentally studied. This control consists of a deflector placed on the upper edge of the model rear window. The study was carried out in a wind tunnel at Reynolds numbers based on the model height of 3.1 × 10⁵ and 7.7 × 10⁵. The flow was investigated via standard and stereoscopic particle image velocimetry, Kiel pressure probes and surface flow visualization. The aerodynamic drag was measured using an external balance and calculated using a wake survey method. Drag reductions up to 9% were obtained depending on the deflector angle. The deflector increases the separated region on the rear window. The results show that when this separated region is wide enough, it disrupts the development of the counter-rotating longitudinal vortices appearing on the lateral edges of the rear window. The current study suggests that flow control on such geometries should consider all the flow structures that contribute to the model wake flow.     

Effect of longitudinal riblets on axisymmetric body drag

The results of comparative gravimetric measurements of the total drag on an axisymmetric body with a smooth and ribbed cylindrical surface are described. The experiments were carried out in a closed wind tunnel at initial tunnel circuit pressures equal to 0.5 and 1 absolute atmosphere with artificially generated model boundary layer turbulence. The free-stream Mach number was varied on the range from 0.15 to 0.85, the Reynolds number Re, calculated from the model length, on the range 4·10⁶–30·10⁶, and the angle of attack on the range from 0 to 12°. The maximum total drag advantage obtained with the ribbed model was 8%. A significant fraction of the drag reduction achieved may be associated with the effect of the ribbing on the drag created by the smooth tail of the body.Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No.2, pp. 174–178, March–April, 1992.     

Flow of drag-reducing surfactant solutions in rough pipes

The paper reports the results of experimental study of the flow of hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) solutions with addition of sodium salicylate (NaSal) in the rough pipes. Measurements were performed in the range of the surfactant concentration from 200 to 400 ppm at a constant molar ratio CTAC/NaSal of 1:2. Five pipes of the relative roughness k/D varying from 1.2 × 10^?2 to 5.6 × 10^?2, obtained by the covering of inner surface of the pipes with glued silicon carbide particles of different size, were studied. The roughness was observed to increase the drag of flow of CTAC/NaSal solutions already at Reynolds numbers higher than 800. With increasing relative roughness k/D, the critical value of Reynolds number, at which the drag reduction disappears, was found to decrease. However, no influence of the roughness on the critical shear stress was noted. The ratio of the critical Reynolds number for rough pipes to that of hydraulically smooth pipes was independent of the surfactant concentration. The degree of drag reduction by the flow of surfactants was greater in rough pipes than in smooth pipes.     

Influence of bubble size on micro-bubble drag reduction

Micro-bubble drag reduction experiments were conducted in a turbulent water channel flow. Compressed nitrogen was used to force flow through a slot injector located in the plate beneath the boundary layer of the tunnel test section. Gas and bubbly mixtures were injected into a turbulent boundary layer (TBL), and the resulting friction drag was measured downstream of the injector. Injection into tap water, a surfactant solution (Triton X-100, 20 ppm), and a salt-water solution (35 ppt) yielded bubbles of average diameter 476, 322 and 254 μm, respectively. In addition, lipid stabilized gas bubbles (44 μm) were injected into the boundary layer. Thus, bubbles with d ⁺ values of 200 to 18 were injected. The results indicate that the measured drag reduction by micro-bubbles in a TBL is related strongly to the injected gas volumetric flow rate and the static pressure in the boundary layer, but is essentially independent of the size of the micro-bubbles over the size range tested.     

Turbulent drag reduction by spanwise wall oscillations

In the present work a technique is numerically investigated, which is aimed at reducing the friction drag in turbulent boundary layers and channel flows. A cyclic spanwise oscillation of the wall with a proper frequency and amplitude is imposed, allowing a reduction of the turbulent drag of up to 40%. The present work is based on the numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations in the simple geometry of a plane channel flow. The frequency of the oscillations is kept fixed at the most efficient value determined in previous studies, while the choice of the best value for the amplitude of the oscillations is evaluated not only in terms of friction reduction, but also by taking into consideration the overall energy balance and the power spent for the motion of the wall. The analysis of turbulence statistics allows to shed some light on the way oscillations interact with wall turbulence, as illustrated by visual inspection of some instantaneous flow fields. Finally, a simple explanation is proposed for this interaction, which leads to a rough estimate of the most efficient value for the frequency of the oscillations.     

Drag reducing outer-layer devices in rough wall turbulent boundary layers

The ability of outer-layer devices to reduce wall shear stress over a substantial streamwise distance in rough-wall turbulent boundary layers has been studied experimentally. The devices examined are a pair of thin flat ribbons placed in tandem as well as those having symmetric airfoil sections. The wall conditions examined are smooth, d- and k-type transverse-groove and sandgrain roughnesses. The wall drag is found to be reduced from the respective normal levels in all rough walls. All k-type rough walls exhibit a similar level of relative wall drag reduction which is also smaller than that in a smooth-wall. The d-type rough walls exhibit a transitional behaviour — the relative wall drag reduction drops from the smooth wall level to that of the k-type roughness with increasing roughness Reynolds number. However, the absolute reductions in the local wall shear stress are similar in both the rough and smooth walls. On the other hand, the relative reductions are lower in the rough walls because of a higher reference drag which is caused by the unique presence of a pressure component on which the devices are not as effective.     

Bluff-body drag reduction by passive ventilation

The drag of a sphere at highRe can be reduced to more than half its value by passive ventilation from the stagnation region to the base. Simultaneously, the flow field around the base is stabilized and made symmetric, leading to reduction of unsteady aerodynamic forces. At highRe, the vent flow breaks through the dead water region associated with the near wake and aerodynamically streamlines the base. The streamlining is done by virtue of a base-vortex-ring beyond the point of turbulent boundary layer separation. A mean flow model for the flow around the vented sphere is proposed.Smoke flow visualized on a laser light screen placed at two diameters behind the base of the sphere shows the effectiveness of the method in suppressing the flow oscillations.The drag reduction achieved is very sensitive to the quality of the external surface and relatively insensitive to disturbances in the internal flow. Surface roughness or boundary layer tripping wire on the external flow can completely offset the benefit obtained.     

The Berlin oil channel for drag reduction research

For drag reduction research an oil channel has been designed and built. It is also well suited for investigations on turbulent flow and in particular on the dynamics of the viscous sublayer near the wall. The thickness of the viscous sublayer (y ⁺= 5) can be varied between 1 and 4 mm. Surfaces with longitudinal ribs (riblets), which are known to reduce drag, can have fairly large dimensions. The lateral spacing of the ribs can lie between 3 and 10 mm, as compared to about 0.5 mm spacing for conventional wind tunnels. It has been proved by appropriate tests that the oil channel data are completely equivalent to data from other facilities and with other mean flow geometries. However, the shear stress data from the new oil channel are much more accurate than previous data due to a novel differential shear force balance with an accuracy of ±0.2%. In addition to shear stress measurements, velocity fluctuation measurements can be carried out with hot wire or hot film probes. In order to calibrate these probes, a moving sled permits to emulate the flow velocities with the fluid in the channel at rest. A number of additional innovations contribute to the improvement of the measurements, such as, e.g., (i) novel adjustable turbulators to maintain equilibrium turbulence in the channel, (ii) a bubble trap to avoid bubbles in the channel at high flow velocities, (iii) a simple method for the precision calibration of manometers, and (iv) the elimination of (Coulomb) friction in ball bearings. This latter fairly general invention is used for the wheels of the calibration unit of the balance. The channel has a cross section of 25 × 85 cm and is 11 m long. It is filled with about 4.5 metric tons of baby oil (white paraffine oil), which is transparent and odorless like water. The kinematic viscosity of the oil is v = 1.2×10^–5 m²/s, and the highest (average) velocity is 1.29 m/s. Thus, the Reynolds number range (calculated with the channel width, 0.25 m) lies between 5,000 and 26,800 for fully established turbulent flow.The material of this paper has been partly presented at the 5^th European Drag Reduction Working Meeting 15^th and 16^th November 1990, London     

The reduction of skin friction by riblets under the influence of an adverse pressure gradient

In this paper we address the effectiveness of riblets on skin friction reduction under the influence of an adverse pressure gradient. The measurements were taken in a wind tunnel. Skin friction was observed with a drag balance which has a reproducibility of better than 1%. The accuracy of the balance is estimated to be less than 1% for the case of zero-pressure gradient and at most 3% for a pressure gradient. The data on skin friction reduction at zero pressure gradient were consistent with previous results and amount to 5% at dimensionless riblet width of s ⁺ = 13. We find that at all adverse pressure gradients the skin friction reduction by riblets persists. At moderate pressure gradients the reduction increases somewhat to 7%. The velocity profile which is also measured, exhibits the characteristic shape for a boundary layer with an adverse pressure gradient and agrees well with theory. From the velocity profiles measured at two stations we estimated with the help of a momentum balance the skin friction and skin friction reduction. The results differ from the drag-balance data. Due to the poor accuracy of the momentum balance method which we estimate in our case, we conclude that the results obtained with this method are less reliable than those obtained with the drag balance. This throws some doubt on previous results on drag reduction under the influence of a pressure gradient which were based on the momentum balance method.     

Drag reduction by coupled systems: microbubble injection with homogeneous polymer and surfactant solutions

 The influence of homogeneous surfactant and homogeneous polymer solutions on the performance of microbubble skin friction reduction was investigated on an axisymmetric body. Carbon dioxide was injected into water, homogeneous surfactant (Aerosol OT) solutions, and homogeneous dilute polymer (Polyethylene oxide) solutions. Integrated skin friction measurements were obtained at two freestream velocities as a function of gas injection rate and polyethylene-oxide concentration. A moderate (50%) decrease in surface tension had little to no effect on the drag reducing characteristics of microbubble injection. At similar gas injection rates, microbubble injection exhibited more drag reduction in the polymer solutions than obtained with microbubble injection into water. However, the increased drag reduction obtained with polymer additives was no more than a multiplicative factor related to the baseline levels of drag reduction achieved by the individual methods, and suggests the mechanism for microbubble skin friction reduction acts independently of the polymer drag reduction. Received: 17 April 1998 / Accepted: 12 October 1998     

Turbulent Drag Reduction by Uniform Blowing Over a Two-dimensional Roughness

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulent channel flow over a two-dimensional irregular rough wall with uniform blowing (UB) was performed. The main objective is to investigate the drag reduction effectiveness of UB on a rough-wall turbulent boundary layer toward its practical application. The DNS was performed under a constant flow rate at the bulk Reynolds number values of 5600 and 14000, which correspond to the friction Reynolds numbers of about 180 and 400 in the smooth-wall case, respectively. Based upon the decomposition of drag into the friction and pressure contributions, the present flow is considered to belong to the transitionally-rough regime. Unlike recent experimental results, it turns out that the drag reduction effect of UB on the present two-dimensional rough wall is similar to that for a smooth wall. The friction drag is reduced similarly to the smooth-wall case by the displacement of the mean velocity profile. Besides, the pressure drag, which does not exist in the smooth-wall case, is also reduced; namely, UB makes the rough wall aerodynamically smoother. Examination of turbulence statistics suggests that the effects of roughness and UB are relatively independent to each other in the outer layer, which suggests that Stevenson’s formula can be modified so as to account for the roughness effect by simply adding the roughness function term.     

Riblet drag reduction in mild adverse pressure gradients: A numerical investigation

Riblet films are a passive method of turbulent boundary layer control that can reduce viscous drag. They have been studied with great detail for over 30 years. Although common riblet applications include flows with Adverse Pressure Gradients (APG), nearly all research thus far has been performed in channel flows. Recent research has provided motivation to study riblets in more complicated turbulent flows with claims that riblet drag reduction can double in mild APG common to airfoils at moderate angles of attack. Therefore, in this study, we compare drag reduction by scalloped riblet films between riblets in a zero pressure gradient and those in a mild APG using high-resolution large eddy simulations. In order to gain a fundamental understanding of the relationship between drag reduction and pressure gradient, we simulated several different riblet sizes that encompassed a broad range of s⁺ (riblet width in wall units), similarly to many previously published experimental studies. We found that there was only a slight improvement in drag reduction for riblets in the mild APG. We also observed that peak values of streamwise turbulence intensity, turbulent kinetic energy, and streamwise vorticity scale with riblet width. Primary Reynolds shear stresses and turbulence kinetic energy production however scale with the ability of the riblet to reduce skin-friction.     

The effect of a systematic change in surface roughness skewness on turbulence and drag

Previous work by the authors (Flack and Schultz, 2010) has identified the root-mean-square roughness height, k_rms, and the skewness, Sk, of the surface elevation distribution as important parameters in scaling the skin-friction drag on rough surfaces. In this study, three surfaces are tested in turbulent boundary layer flow at a friction Reynolds number, Re_τ = 1600–2200. All the surfaces have similar root-mean-square roughness height, while the skewness is varied. Measurements are presented using both two-component LDV and PIV. The results show the anticipated trend of increasing skin-friction drag with increasing skewness. The largest increase in drag occurs going from negative skewness to zero skewness with a more modest increase going from zero to positive skewness. Some differences in the mean velocity and Reynolds stress profiles are observed for the three surfaces. However, these differences are confined to a region close to the rough surface, and the mean velocity and Reynolds stress profiles collapse away from the wall when scaled in outer variables. The turbulence structure as documented through two-point spatial correlations of velocity is also observed to be very similar over the three surfaces. These results support Townsend’s (1976) concept of outer-layer similarity that the wall boundary condition exerts no direct influence on the turbulence structure away from the wall except in setting the velocity and length scales for the outer layer.