Effect of plate length on drag reduction of square faced bluff body

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of splitter plates on drag reduction in square-faced bodies using a water flow channel with three different splitter plate lengths: 2.5 cm, 1.8 cm, and 1.25 cm. The height and thickness were kept constant at 2.5 cm and 3 mm. Reynolds numbers ranging from 8977.5 to 3847.5 were tested. Results showed that increasing the Reynolds number increased the pressure hill height for both splitter plates forward as well backward. In the first case the forward splitter plate, shorter lengths resulted in reduced pressure hill heights. For the backward splitter plate, longer lengths led to larger pressure hill heights. The best drag reduction effect is got when the splitter plate length and the model length are of equal length. Overall, the effective drag reduction effect is shown by the backward splitter plate compared to the forward, the difference in value is almost 30%. These results are eminent for getting a perception of relation that exist between splitter plate length and drag reduction in square-faced bodies.