Wall-normal pores for turbulent drag reduction

Abstract

Flat surfaces with arrays of wall-normal pores called micro-cavity arrays have shown potential to reduce turbulent skin friction drag. Their designs have been inspired by acoustic liners which are sandwich panels consisting of a honeycomb core, a perforated top plate and a solid back sheet used on aircraft engine nacelles for noise abatement. Research on acoustic liners has paved the way to identify the parameters that are crucial for optimising the design of micro-cavity arrays. Spanwise rectangular grooves, a special case of cavities, have also shown potential to reduce skin friction drag. This thesis aims to validate the reported drag performance of micro-cavity arrays and grooves through experimental methods used in literature and direct force measurements. 

In this research, experimental results show that although pores and grooves are capable of reducing turbulence energy in the boundary layer, there is a significant drag increase with respect to a smooth reference. Based on measured drag performance and past research on cavity flows, it has been argued that the observed drag increase is caused by pressure forces acting on the inner walls of the pores and grooves. As past research on micro-cavity arrays did not perform direct force measurements, the contribution of pressure drag had not been investigated. Pressure drag is expected to be present and perhaps even dominate over skin friction drag reductions. Further research into the flow mechanics inside the pores is required to validate this argument and find a way to minimise the pressure forces. Wall-normal pores could still be an effective turbulent drag reduction technique if arrays are optimised for skin friction drag reductions that surpass pressure drag.