Control of Vortex Shedding and Drag Reduction through Dual Splitter Plates Attached to a Square Cylinder

In this paper we have made a numerical study on the control of vortex shedding and drag reduction of a cylinder by attaching thin splitter plates. The wake structure of the cylinder of square cross-section with attached splitter plates is analyzed for a range of Reynolds number, based on the incident stream and height of the cylinder, in the laminar range. The Navier-Stokes equations governing the flow are solved by the control volume method over a staggered grid arrangement. We have used the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equation （SIMPLE） algorithm for computation. Our results show that the presence of a splitter plate upstream of the cylinder reduces the drag, but it has a small impact on the vortex shedding frequency when the plate length is beyond 1.5 time the height of the cylinder. The presence of a downstream splitter plate dampens the vortex shedding frequency. The entrainment of fluid into the inner side of the separated shear layers is obstructed by the downstream splitter plate. Our results suggest that by attaching in-line splitter plates both upstream and downstream of the cylinder, the vortex shedding can be suppressed, as well as a reduction in drag be obtained. We made a parametric study to determine the optimal length of these splitter plates so as to achieve low drag and low vortex shedding frequency.

Numerical study on influence of protrusion heights on Reynolds stress and viscous stress variations in turbulent vortical structures

Analysing the influence mechanism of the riblet protrusion height on turbulent drag components is more beneficial in organising the vortical structure over the riblet surface.Therefore, the Large Eddy Simulation(LES) is used to investigate the vortex structure over the riblet surface with different protrusion heights. Then, the variations of Reynolds stress and viscous shear stress in a turbulent channel are analysed. As a result, the drag reduction rate increases from3.4% when the riblets are completely submerged in the turbulent boundary layer to 7.9% when the protrusion height is 11.2. Further analysis shows that the protrusion height affects the streamwise vortices and the normal diffusivity of spanwise and normal vortices, thus driving the variation of Reynolds stress. Compared with the smooth surface, the vorticity strength and the number of streamwise vortices are weakened near the wall but increase in the logarithmic layer with increased protrusion height. Meanwhile, the normal diffusivity of spanwise vorticity decreases with the increase of protrusion height, and the normal diffusivity of normal vorticity is the smallest when the protrusion height is 11.2. Moreover, the protrusion height affects the velocity gradient of the riblet tip and riblet valley, thus driving the variation of viscous shear stress. With the increase of protrusion height, the velocity gradient of the riblet tip increases dramatically but decreases in the riblet valley.