Numerical Studies on Drag Reduction of An Axisymmetric Body of Revolution With Antiturbulence Surface

This article presents numerical studies on the drag evolution of an axisymmetric body of revolution with microgrooves using Reynolds stress model-based computational fluid dynamics simulations. Experimental data of drag evolution along the non-grooved body were used to validate the numerical model predictions. After validation of the model predictions, a series of numerical simulations were performed to study the effect of toroidal grooving of the axisymmetric body on the drag evolution by varying the depth to the surface radius of the grooves at different Reynolds numbers. A maximum drag reduction of 43% was achieved with such effort. This was possible because of the drastic reduction of turbulent shear stress in the boundary layer, which has a direct relationship with the skin friction drag evolution along the body.

Automated summary

This article presents numerical studies on the drag evolution of an axisymmetric body with microgrooves, showing that changing the toroidal groove depth can significantly reduce the skin friction drag evolution. The maximum drag reduction achieved was 43% due to a drastic reduction in turbulent shear stress in the boundary layer.