Distributed forcing of flow over a circular cylinder

In the present study, we apply a distributed (i.e., spatially varying) forcing to flow over a circular cylinder for drag reduction. The distributed forcing is realized by a blowing and suction from the slots located at upper and lower surfaces of the cylinder. The forcing profile from each slot is sinusoidal in the spanwise direction but is steady in time. We consider two different phase differences between the upper and lower blowing/suction profiles: zero (in-phase forcing) and pi (out-of-phase forcing). The Reynolds numbers considered are from 40 to 3900 covering various regimes of flow over a circular cylinder. For all the Reynolds numbers larger than 47, the present in-phase distributed forcing attenuates or annihilates the Karman vortex shedding and thus significantly reduces the mean drag and the drag and lift fluctuations. The optimal wavelength and amplitude of the in-phase forcing for maximum drag reduction are also obtained for the Reynolds number of 100. It is shown that the in-phase forcing produces the phase mismatch along the spanwise direction in the vortex shedding, weakens the strength of vortical structures in the wake, and thus reduces the drag. Unlike the in-phase forcing, the out-of-phase distributed forcing does not reduce the drag at low Reynolds numbers, but it reduces the mean drag and the drag and lift fluctuations at a high Reynolds number of 3900 by affecting the evolution of the separating shear layer, although the amount of drag reduction is smaller than that by the in-phase forcing. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.