Drag Reduction by Microvortexes in Transverse Microgrooves

A transverse microgrooved surface was employed here to reduce the surface drag force by creating a slippage in bottom layer in turbulent boundary layer. A detailed simulation and experimental investigation on drag reduction by transverse microgrooves were given. The computational fluid dynamics simulation, using RNG k-epsilon turbulent model, showed that the vortexes were formed in the grooves and they were a main reason for the drag reduction. On the upside of the vortex, the revolving direction was consistent with the main flow, which decreased the flow shear stress by declining the velocity gradient. The experiments were carried out in a high-speed water tunnel with flow velocity varying from 17 to 19 m/s. The experimental results showed that the drag reduction was about 13%. Therefore, the computational and experimental results were cross-checked and consistent with each other to prove that the presented approach achieved effective drag reduction underwater.