In-depth characterization and analysis of simple shear flows over regularly arranged micro pillars, II. Effect of pillar arrangement

TL;DR

This study uses high-fidelity simulations to analyze how different arrangements of micro pillars affect flow characteristics, momentum transport, and surface friction in simple shear flows, revealing distinct influences of pillar spacing.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of how streamwise and spanwise pillar distances uniquely influence flow dynamics and surface friction in micro pillar arrays.

Findings

Small streamwise distance suppresses micro eddies in gaps.

Increasing spanwise distance enhances momentum transfer.

Surface friction components depend on pillar spacing factors.

Abstract

Through high-fidelity numerical simulation, the effect of the arrangement of micropillars on the flow characteristics and momentum transport has been extensively investigated. The surface friction due to the complex flow characteristics and momentum transport mechanism has also been studied in depth. The micropillars are arranged in a quadrilateral, and different arrangements are acquired by changing the streamwise and spanwise distances between pillar rows. The results show that the streamwise and spanwise pillar distances have their own different influences. When the streamwise pillar distance is small, the micro eddies in the gaps between the streamwise neighboring pillars are significantly suppressed. The increase in the spanwise pillar distance enhances the momentum transport from the flow above pillar array to the flow in the spaces among micro pillars. When the spanwise pillar distance is small, the micro eddies in the gaps between the streamwise neighboring pillars connect with each other and form a tubular eddy between each pair of spanwise pillar rows. The tubular eddies significantly reduce the momentum transport from the upper flow to the lower flow. The increase in the streamwise pillar distance increase the momentum flux slightly. The surface friction can be decomposed into three components which are associated with two factors, the dilution effect of the number density of micro pillars and the multi-faceted effects of micro eddies. These two factors are determined by the streamwise and spanwise pillar distances. The dependence of the total friction and its components on the pillar distances has been thoroughly examined.