Mechanics of drag reduction of an axisymmetric body of revolution with shallow dimples

TL;DR

This study investigates how shallow dimples on an axisymmetric body of revolution can significantly reduce drag by stabilizing flow and reducing turbulence, validated through high-fidelity simulations and experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a validated high-fidelity Reynolds Stress Modeling approach to analyze drag reduction mechanisms due to shallow dimples on axisymmetric bodies.

Findings

Maximum 31% drag reduction observed

Flow stabilization and turbulence suppression identified as key factors

Reduced turbulence anisotropy near the surface

Abstract

In this article, the mechanics of drag reduction on an axisymmetric body of revolution by shallow dimples is presented by using the high-fidelity Reynolds Stress Modeling based simulations. Experimental results of drag evolution from published literature at different Reynolds numbers are used to validate the model predictions. The numerical predictions show good agreement with the experimental results. It is observed that the drag of the body is reduced by a maximum of $31\%$ with such shape modification (for the depth to diameter ratio of $7.5\%$ and coverage ratio of $52.8\%$). This arises due to the reduced level of turbulence, flow stabilization and suppression of flow separation in the boundary layer of the body. From the analysis of turbulence states in the anisotopic invariant map (AIM) for the case of the dimpled body, we show that the turbulence reaches an axisymmetric limit in the layers close to the surface of the body. There is also a reduced misalignment between the mean flow direction and principal axis of the Reynolds stress tensor, which results in such drag reduction. The dimple depth to diameter and coverage ratio are also varied to evaluate its effect on drag evolution.