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Scaling of flat plate drag reduction using plasma-generated streamwise vortices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Xiaohui Wei*
Affiliation:
Center for Turbulence Control, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518055, PR China
Yu Zhou*
Affiliation:
Center for Turbulence Control, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518055, PR China School of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics, College of Engineering, Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo 315000, PR China
*
Corresponding authors: Yu Zhou, [email protected]; Xiaohui Wei, [email protected]
Corresponding authors: Yu Zhou, [email protected]; Xiaohui Wei, [email protected]

Abstract

Skin-friction drag reduction (DR) in a turbulent boundary layer (TBL) using plasma-generated streamwise vortices (PGSVs) is governed by plasma-induced spanwise wall-jet velocity $W$, the distance $L$ between the positive electrodes of two adjacent plasma actuators (PAs) and the friction Reynolds number $Re_\tau$. It is found experimentally that DR increases logarithmically with the growing maximum spanwise mean velocity $\overline {W}_{max}^+$ but decreases with rising $L^+$ and $Re_\tau$, where superscript ‘+’ denotes normalization by the inner scales. It is further found from theoretical and empirical scaling analyses that the dimensionless drag variation $\Delta F = g_1 (\overline {W}_{max}^+, L^+, {Re_\tau })$ may be reduced to $\Delta F = g_2 (\xi )$, where $g_1$ and $g_2$ are different functions and the scaling factor $\xi = [k_{2} \log _{10} (k_{1} \overline {W}_{max }^{+} ) ] / (L^{+} Re_{\tau } )$ ($k_{2}$ and $k_{1}$ are constants) is physically the circulation of the PGSVs. Discussion is conducted based on $\Delta F = g_2 (\xi )$, which provides important insight into the physics of TBL control based on PAs.

Type
JFM Rapids
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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