Parametric Optimization of Wheel Spoke Structure for Drag Reduction of an Ahmed Body

The wheels have a considerable influence on the aerodynamic properties and can contribute up to 25%of the total drag on modern vehicles.In this study,the effect of the wheel spoke structure on the aerodynamic performance of the isolated wheel is investigated.Subsequently,the 35°Ahmed body with an optimized spoke structure is used to analyze the flow behavior and the mechanism of drag reduction.The Fluent software is employed for this investigation,with an inlet velocity of 40 m/s.The accuracy of the numerical study is validated by comparing it with experimental results obtained from the classical Ahmed model.To gain a clearer understanding of the effects of the wheel spoke parameters on the aerodynamics of both the wheel and Ahmedmodel,and five design variables are proposed:the fillet angleα,the inside arc radius R1,the outside radius R2,and the same length of the chord L1 and L2.These variables characterize the wheel spoke structure.The Optimal Latin Hypercube designmethod is utilized to conduct the experimental design.Based on the simulation results of various wheel spoke designs,the Kriging model and the adaptive simulated annealing algorithm is selected to optimize the design parameters.The objective is to achieve the best combination for maximum drag reduction.It is indicated that the optimized spoke structure resulted in amaximum drag reduction of 5.7%and 4.7%for the drag coefficient of the isolated wheel and Ahmed body,respectively.The drag reduction is primarily attributed to changes in the flow state around the wheel,which suppressed separation bubbles.Additionally,it influenced the boundary layer thickness around the car body and reduced the turbulent kinetic energy in the wake flow.These effects collectively contributed to the observed drag reduction.

Airfoil friction drag reduction based on grid-type and super-dense array plasma actuators

To improve the cruise flight performance of aircraft, two new configurations of plasma actuators(grid-type and super-dense array) were investigated to reduce the turbulent skin friction drag of a low-speed airfoil. The induced jet characteristics of the two actuators in quiescent air were diagnosed with high-speed particle image velocimetry(PIV), and their drag reduction efficiencies were examined under different operating conditions in a wind tunnel. The results showed that the grid-type plasma actuator was capable of producing a wall-normal jet array(peak magnitude: 1.07 m/s) similar to that generated in a micro-blowing technique, while the superdense array plasma actuator created a wavy wall-parallel jet(magnitude: 0.94 m/s) due to the discrete spanwise electrostatic forces. Under a comparable electrical power consumption level,the super-dense array plasma actuator array significantly outperformed the grid-type configuration,reducing the total airfoil friction drag by approximately 22% at a free-stream velocity of 20 m/s.The magnitude of drag reduction was proportional to the dimensionless jet velocity ratio(r), and a threshold r = 0.014 existed under which little impact on airfoil drag could be discerned.

Nanoparticle-induced drag reduction for polyacrylamide in turbulent flow with high Reynolds numbers

Although having been increasingly studied, there is still controversy as to when the addition of nanoparticles could improve the drag reduction performance of polymer drag reducer and particularly what is the underlying mechanism from the fluid dynamics viewpoint. The drag reduction effects of adding SiO_(2) nanoparticles to various polymer polyacrylamide(PAM) solutions were examined in this work.The optimal combination of SiO_(2) nanoparticles with cationic polyacrylamide was confirmed.Interestingly,the addition of SiO_(2) nanoparticles to cationic polyacrylamide solution was shown to be quite efficient for reducing drag, but only at higher flow rates with Reynolds numbers more than 6000, below which the nanoparticle addition is even negative. The addition of SiO_(2) nanoparticles to the PAM solution is supposed to play a dual role. The first is an increase in flow resistance caused by the Brownian motion of nanoparticles, while the second is a decrease in flow resistance caused by acting as nodes to protect the polymer chain from shear-induced breaking under high shear action. At optimal nanoparticle concentration and under higher Reynolds numbers, the later effect is dominant, which could improve the drag reduction performance of polymer drag reducers. Our work should serve as a guide for the application of natural gas fracturing, where the flow rate is frequently very high.

Aerodynamic drag reduction of heavy vehicles using append devices by CFD analysis

Improving vehicle fuel consumption,performance and aerodynamic efficiency by drag reduction especially in heavy vehicles is one of the indispensable issues of automotive industry.In this work,the effects of adding append devices like deflector and cab vane corner on heavy commercial vehicle drag reduction were investigated.For this purpose,the vehicle body structure was modeled with various supplementary parts at the first stage.Then,computational fluid dynamic(CFD) analysis was utilized for each case to enhance the optimal aerodynamic structure at different longitudinal speeds for heavy commercial vehicles.The results show that the most effective supplementary part is deflector,and by adding this part,the drag coefficient is decreased considerably at an optimum angle.By adding two cab vane corners at both frontal edges of cab,a significant drag reduction is noticed.Back vanes and base flaps are simple plates which can be added at the top and side end of container and at the bottom with specific angle respectively to direct the flow and prevent the turbulence.Through the analysis of airflow and pressure distribution,the results reveal that the cab vane reduces fuel consumption and drag coefficient by up to 20 % receptively using proper deflector angle.Finally,by adding all supplementary parts at their optimized positions,41% drag reduction is obtained compared to the simple model.

Experimental demonstration of a new concept of drag reduction and thermal protection for hypersonic vehicles

A new idea of drag reduction and thermal protection for hypersonic vehicles is proposed based on the combination of a physical spike and lateral jets for shockreconstruction. The spike recasts the bow shock in front of a blunt body into a conical shock, and the lateral jets work to protect the spike tip from overheating and to push the conical shock away from the blunt body when a pitching angle exists during flight. Experiments are conducted in a hypersonic wind tunnel at a nominal Mach number of 6. It is demonstrated that the shock/shock interaction on the blunt body is avoided due to injection and the peak pressure at the reattachment point is reduced by 70% under a 4° attack angle.

The Mechanism of Drag Reduction around Bodies of Revolution Using Bionic Non-Smooth Surfaces

Bionic non-smooth surfaces （BNSS） can reduce drag. Much attention has been paid to the mechanism of shear stress reduction by riblets. The mechanism of pressure force reduction by bionic non-smooth surfaces on bodies of revolution has not been well investigated. In this work CFD simulation has revealed the mechanism of drag reduction by BNSS, which may work in three ways. First, BNSS on bodies of revolution may lower the surface velocity of the medium, which prevents the sudden speed up of air on the cross section. So the bottom pressure of the model would not be disturbed sharply, resulting in less energy loss and drag reduction. Second, the magnitude of vorticity induced by the bionic model becomes smaller because, due to the sculpturing, the growth of tiny air bubbles is avoided. Thus the large moment of inertia induced by large air bubble is reduced. The reduction of the vorticity could reduce the dissipation of the eddy. So the pressure force could also be reduced. Third, the thickness of the momentum layer on the model becomes less which, according to the relationship between the drag coefficient and the momentum thickness, reduces drag.

Drag reduction behavior of hydrolyzed polyacrylamide/xanthan gum mixed polymer solutions

Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide（HPAM）as the main component of slickwater fracturing fluid is a shear-sensitive polymer,which suffers from mechanical degradation at turbulent flow rates.Five different concentrations of HPAM as well as mixtures of polyacrylamide/xanthan gum were prepared to investigate the possibility of improving shear stability of HPAM.Drag reduction（DR）measurements were performed in a closed flow loop.For HPAM solutions,the extent of DR increased from 30%to67%with increasing HPAM concentration from 100 to1000 wppm.All the HPAM solutions suffered from mechanical degradation and loss of DR efficiency over the shearing period.Results indicated that the resistance to shear degradation increased with increasing polymer concentration.DR efficiency of 600 wppm xanthan gum（XG）was 38%,indicating that XG was not as good a drag reducer as HPAM.But with only 6%DR decline,XG solution exhibited a better shear stability compared to HPAM solutions.Mixed HPAM/XG solutions initially exhibited greater DR（40%and 55%）compared to XG,but due to shear degradation,DR%dropped for HPAM/XG solutions.Compared to 200 wppm HPAM solution,addition of XG did not improve the drag reduction efficiency of HPAM/XG mixed solutions though XG slightly improved the resistance against mechanical degradation in HPAM/XG mixed polymer solutions.

Role of on-board discharge in shock wave drag reduction and plasma cloaking

In the present paper, a physical model is proposed for reducing the problem of the drag reduction of an attached bow shock around the nose of a high-speed vehicle with on-board discharge, to the problem of a balance between the magnetic pressure and gas pressure of plane shock of a partially ionized gas consisting of the environmental gas around the nose of the vehicle and the on-board discharge-produced plasma. The relation between the shock strength and the discharge-induced magnetic pressure is studied by means of a set of one-fluid, hydromagnetic equations reformed for the present purpose, where the discharge-induced magnetic field consists of the electron current （produced by the discharge）-induced magnetic field and the partially ionized gas flow-induced one. A formula for the relation between the above parameters is derived. It shows that the discharge-induced magnetic pressure can minimize the shock strength, successfully explaining the two recent experimental observations on attached bow shock mitigation and elimination in a supersonic flow during on-board discharge [Phys. Plasmas 9 （2002） 721 and Phys. Plasmas 7 （2000） 1345]. In addition, the formula implies that the shock elimination leaves room for a layer of higher-density plasma rampart moving around the nose of the vehicle, being favourable to the plasma radar cloaking of the vehicle. The reason for it is expounded.

Active control of turbulence for drag reduction based on the detection of near-wall streamwise vortices by wall information

The spatial relations between the measurable wall quantities （streamwise shear stress τwx, spanwise shear stress τwz, and pressure fluctuations Pw） and the near-wall streamwise vortices （NWSV） are investigated via direct numerical simulation （DNS） databases of fully developed turbulent channel flow at a low Reynolds number. In the stan- dard turbulent channel flow, the results show that all the wall measurable variables are closely associated with the NWSV. But after applying a stochastic interference, the relation based on τwx breaks down while the correlations based on Pw and τwz are still robust. Hence, two wall flow quantities based on Pw and τwz are proposed to detect the NWSV. As an appli- cation, two new control schemes are developed to suppress the near-wall vortical structures using the actuation of wall blowing/suction and obtain 16 % and 11% drag reduction, respectively.

COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS(CFD) SIMULATIONS OF DRAG REDUCTION WITH PERIODIC MICRO-STRUCTURED WALL

Computational fluid dynamics（CFD） simulations are adopted to investigate rectangular microchannel flows with various periodic micro-structured wall by introducing velocity slip boundary condition at low Reynolds number. The purpose of the current study is to numerically find out the effects of periodic micro-structured wall on the flow resistance in rectangular microchannel with the different spacings between microridges ranging from 15 to 60 pm. The simulative results indicate that pressure drop with different spacing between microridges increases linearly with flow velocity and decreases monotonically with slip velocity; Pressure drop reduction also increases with the spacing between microridges at the same condition of slip velocity and flow velocity. The results of numerical simulation are compared with theoretical predictions and experimental results in the literatures. It is found that there is qualitative agreement between them.

Experiment about Drag Reduction of Bionic Non-smooth Surface in Low Speed Wind Tunnel

The body surface of some organisms has non-smooth structure, which is related to drag reduction in moving fluid. To imitate these structures, models with a non-smooth surface were made. In order to find a relationship between drag reduction and the non-smooth surface, an orthogonal design test was employed in a low speed wind tunnel. Six factors likely to influence drag reduction were considered, and each factor tested at three levels. The six factors were the configuration, diameter/bottom width, height/depth, distribution, the arrangement of the rough structures on the experimental model and the wind speed. It was shown that the non-smooth surface causes drag reduction and the distribution of non-smooth structures on the model, and wind speed, are the predominant factors affecting drag reduction. Using analysis of variance, the optimal combination and levels were obtained, which were a wind speed of 44 m/s, distribution of the non-smooth structure on the tail of the experimental model, the configuration of riblets, diameter/bottom width of i mm, height/depth of 0.5 mm, arranged in a rhombic formation. At the optimal combination mentioned above, the 99% confidence interval for drag reduction was 11.13% to 22.30%.

Drag reduction and shear resistance properties of ionomer and hydrogen bond systems based on lauryl methacrylate

Based on molecular dynamics simulation results, a lauryl methacrylate polymer with drag reduction and shear resistance properties was designed, and synthesized by emulsion polymerization using 2-vinyl pyridine and methyl methacrylate as the polar polymerization monomer. After ionization of lauryl methacrylate polymer, an ion-dipole interaction based drag reduction agent （DRA） was obtained. The existence of ion-dipole interaction was proven through characterization of the drag-reducing agent from its infrared （IR） spectrum. The pilot-scale reaction yield of the DRA under optimum conditions was investigated, and the drag reduction and shear resistance properties were measured. The results show that： l） The ion-dipole or hydrogen bonding interaction can form ladder-shaped chains, therefore the synthesized DRA has shear resistance properties; 2） The larger the molecular weight （MW） and more concentrated the distribution of MW, the better the drag reduction efficiency and the performance of the ionomer system was superior to that of the hydrogen bonding system; 3） With increasing shear frequency, the drag-reduction rates of both the DRAs decreased, and the drag reduction rate of the ionomer system decreased more slowly than of the corresponding hydrogen bonding system. From the point of view of drag reduction rate and shear resistance property, the ionomer system is more promising than the hydrogen bonding system

Drag Reduction in a Swimming Humboldt Penguin, Spheniscus Humboldti, when the Boundary Layer is Turbulent

An area of protruding feathers found around the beak of many penguin species is thought to induce a turbulent boun~dary layer whilst swimming. Hydrodynamic tests on a model Humboldt penguin, Spheniscus humboldti, suggest that induced turbulence causes a significant reduction in boundary layer height, flow separation, and an average of 31 % reduction in drag (1.0 m/s to 4.5 m/s). Visualisation of surface flow showed it to follow the body profile, over the feet and tail, before separating. Movement of the feet in swimming penguins correlates with steering of the bird. Induced turbulence may therefore further increase swimming efficiency by reducing the amount of foot movement required to direct the swimming bird.

Mechanical behavior of drillstring with drag reduction oscillators and its effects on sliding drilling limits

Practice has proved that drag reduction oscillators can decrease the axial friction and increase wellbore extension effectively in sliding drilling operations.However,the complicated mechanical behavior of drillstring with drag reduction oscillators has not been revealed sufficiently.In this paper,the mechanical model of drillstring with drag reduction oscillators is established by considering the friction nonlinearity.Further introducing the initial conditions,boundary conditions and continuity conditions,the finite differential equation of drillstring vibration is obtained and solved.The new model has been applied to a case study,in which the drag reduction effects of drillstring with and without oscillators are compared and the effects of relevant factors on drag reduction are analyzed.The results show that the hook loads increase obviously by reducing downhole average friction coefficient for drillstring with oscillators.Increasing vibration amplitude of the drag reduction oscillator can decrease axial friction,but the vibration frequency is nearly irrelevant to drag reduction.Increasing number of drag reduction oscillators can decrease axial friction,but may lead to large hydraulic power loss and high risk of drillstring fatigue.Therefore,there is an optimal number of drag reduction oscillators.The re search re sults are of significant guiding significance for optimal design and safety control in sliding drilling operations.

Numerical Simulation on Flow Control for Drag Reduction of Revolution Body Using Dimpled Surface

Numerical simulation on the flow fields near the dimpled and the smooth revolution bodies are performed and compared by using SST k-ω turbulence model, to explain the reasons of friction and base drag reductions on the bionic dimpled surface and the control behaviors of dimpled surface to boundary layer near wall of the revolution body. The simulation results show that the dimpled surface reduces the skin friction drag through reducing the velocity gradient and turbulent intensity, and reduces the base drag through weakening the pumping action on the flow behind the revolution body caused by the external flow; the low speed rotating vortexes in the dimples segregate the external flow and the revolution body; and the low speed rotating vortexes forming in the bottom of dimples can produce negative skin friction.

Experimental investigation on drag reduction in a turbulent boundary layer with a submerged synthetic jet

This work investigates the active control of a fully developed turbulent boundary layer by a submerged synthetic jet actuator.The impacts of the control are explored by measuring the streamwise velocities using particle image velocimetry,and reduction of the skin-friction drag is observed in a certain range downstream of the orifice.The coherent structure is defined and extracted using a spatial two-point correlation function,and it is found that the synthetic jet can efficiently reduce the streamwise scale of the coherent structure.Proper orthogonal decomposition analysis reveals that large-scale turbulent kinetic energy is significantly attenuated with the introduction of a synthetic jet.The conditional averaging results show that the induction effect of the prograde vortex on the low-speed fluid in a large-scale fluctuation velocity field is deadened,thereby suppressing the bursting process near the wall.

Modeling of drag reduction in turbulent channel flow with hydrophobic walls by FVM method and weakly-compressible flow equations

In this paper the effects of hydrophobic wall on skin-friction drag in the channel flow are investigated through large eddy simulation on the basis of weaklycompressible flow equations with the MacCormack’s scheme on collocated mesh in the FVM framework. The slip length model is adopted to describe the behavior of the slip velocities in the streamwise and spanwise directions at the interface between the hydrophobic wall and turbulent channel flow. Simulation results are presented by analyzing flow behaviors over hydrophobic wall with the Smagorinky subgrid-scale model and a dynamic model on computational meshes of different resolutions. Comparison and analysis are made on the distributions of timeaveraged velocity, velocity fluctuations, Reynolds stress as well as the skin-friction drag. Excellent agreement between the present study and previous results demonstrates the accuracy of the simple classical second-order scheme in representing turbulent vertox near hydrophobic wall. In addition, the relation of drag reduction efficiency versus time-averaged slip velocity is established. It is also foundthat the decrease of velocity gradient in the close wall region is responsible for the drag reduction. Considering its advantages of high calculation precision and efficiency, the present method has good prospect in its application to practical projects.

Mechanism of drag reduction by spanwise oscillating Lorentz force in turbulent channel flow

Numerical simulations and experimental research are both carried out to investigate the controlled effect of spanwise oscillating Lorentz force on a turbulent channel flow. The variations of the streaks and the skin friction drag are obtained through the PIV system and the drag measurement system, respectively. The flow field in the near-wall region is shown through direct numerical simulations utilizing spectral method. The experimental results are consistent with the numerical simulation results qualitatively, and both the results indicate that the streaks are tilted into the spanwise direction and the drag reduction utilizing spanwise oscillating Lorentz forces can be realized. The numerical simulation results reveal more detail of the drag reduction mechanism which can be explained, since the spanwise vorticity generated from the interaction between the induced Stokes layer and intrinsic turbulent flow in the near-wall region can make the longitudinal vortices tilt and oscillate, and leads to turbulence suppression and drag reduction.

Preparation and stabilization mechanism of carbon dots nanofluids for drag reduction

During the development of low or ultra-low permeability oil resources,the alternative energy supply becomes a prominent issue.In recent years,carbon dots(CDs)have drawn much attention owing to their application potential in oil fields for reducing injection pressure and augmenting oil recovery.However,carbon dots characterized of small size,high surface energy are faced with several challenges,such as self-aggregation and settling.The preparation of stably dispersed carbon dots nanofluids is the key factor to guarantee its application performance in formation.In this work,we investigated the stability of hydrophilic carbon dots(HICDs)and hydrophobic carbon dots-Tween 80(HOCDs)nanofluids.The influences of carbon dots concentration,sorts and concentration of salt ions as well as temperature on the stability of CDs were studied.The results showed that HICDs are more sensitive to sort and concentration of salt ions,while HOCDs are more sensitive to temperature.In addition,the core flooding experiments demonstrated that the pressure reduction rate of HICDs and HOCDs nanofluids can be as high as 17.88%and 26.14%,respectively.Hence,the HICDs and HOCDs nanofluids show a good application potential in the reduction of injection pressure during the development of low and ultra-low permeability oil resources.

Drag reduction characteristics of heated spheres falling into water

We experimentally investigate the drag reduction characteristics of heated spheres falling into water by using a highspeed camera. In 25-℃ water, with the increase of the sphere temperature the average velocity increases to a maximum value at a temperature of 400℃ and then decreases until the temperature reaches 700℃, the average velocity will increase while the sphere temperature continually rises until the temperature reaches 900℃. The average and the maximum velocity of the heated sphere are larger than those of the room-temperature sphere. The flow separates at the rear of the heated sphere,leading to low pressure drag. The drag reduction effect of the stable film boiling is lower than that of the nucleate boiling.In the nucleate boiling regime, the average velocity decreases with the increase of water temperature, the drag of the sphere with gentle boiling intensity is smaller. The vapor layer formed in the stable film boiling regime can improve the stability of the fall trajectory. The intense turbulence caused by the nucleate boiling can make the sphere largely deviate from rectilinear motion.