Research on the Flow and Drag Reduction Characteristics of Surfaces with Biomimetic Fitting Structure

Abstract

To reduce the fluid resistance on the surface of flow-through components and improve energy utilization efficiency, a biomimetic fitting structure model is constructed based on the ridge-like features of beluga skin. The SST k-ω model is employed to numerically simulate the drag reduction characteristics of three biomimetic structures (fitting structure, V-shaped structure, and arc structure) included in the design. The variations of the fitting structure’s viscous resistance and pressure drop resistance with different widths and depths are compared. The drag reduction mechanism of the fitting structure surface is studied based on the pressure stress, velocity field, and shear stress. The results demonstrate that the fitting structure exhibits the best drag reduction performance. The fitting structure with a width of 30 mm and a depth of 0.7 mm achieves an optimal drag reduction effect of 4.18%. The fitting structure exhibits a large low shear stress region, which increases the thickness of the bottom boundary layer, thereby reducing surface velocity and viscous resistance.

Keywords

• fitting structure
• drag reduction
• numerical simulation
• surface flow field