Fully resolved measurements of turbulent boundary layers are reported for the Reynolds number range Re τ = 6000-20 000. Despite several decades of research in wall-bounded turbulence there is still controversy over the behaviour of streamwise turbulence intensities near the wall, especially at high Reynolds numbers. Much of it stems from the uncertainty in measurement due to finite spatial resolution. Conventional hot-wire anemometry is limited for high Reynolds number measurements due to limited spatial resolution issues that cause attenuation in the streamwise turbulence intensity profile near the wall. To address this issue we use the nano-scale thermal anemometry probe (NSTAP), developed at Princeton University to conduct velocity measurements in the high Reynolds number boundary layer facility at the University of Melbourne. The NSTAP has a sensing length almost one order of magnitude smaller than conventional hot-wires. This enables us to acquire fully resolved velocity measurements of turbulent boundary layers up to Re τ = 20 000. Results show that in the near-wall region, the viscous-scaled streamwise turbulence intensity grows with Re τ in the Reynolds number range of the experiments. A second outer peak in the streamwise turbulence intensity is also shown to emerge at the highest Reynolds numbers. Moreover, the energy spectra in the near-wall region show excellent inner scaling over the small to moderate wavelength range, followed by a large-scale influence that increases with Reynolds number. Outer scaling in the outer region is found to collapse the energy spectra over high wavelengths across various Reynolds numbers.
Results on turbulent skin friction reduction over air- and liquid-impregnated surfaces are presented for aqueous Taylor-Couette flow. The surfaces are fabricated by mechanically texturing the inner cylinder and chemically modifying the features to make them either non-wetting with respect to water (air-infused, or superhydrophobic case), or wetting with respect to an oil that is immiscible with water (liquid-infused case). The drag reduction, which remains fairly constant over the Reynolds number range tested (100 ≤ Reτ ≤ 140), is approximately 10% for the superhydrophobic surface and 14% for the best liquid-infused surface. Our results suggest that liquid-infused surfaces may enable robust drag reduction in high Reynolds number turbulent flows without the shortcomings associated with conventional superhydrophobic surfaces, namely, failure under conditions of high hydrodynamic pressure and turbulent flow fluctuations.
Simulations and experiments at low Reynolds numbers have suggested that skin-friction drag generated by turbulent fluid flow over a surface can be decreased by oscillatory motion in the surface, with the amount of drag reduction predicted to decline with increasing Reynolds number. Here, we report direct measurements of substantial drag reduction achieved by using spanwise surface oscillations at high friction Reynolds numbers ($${{{\mathrm{Re}}}_{\tau }}$$ Re τ ) up to 12,800. The drag reduction occurs via two distinct physical pathways. The first pathway, as studied previously, involves actuating the surface at frequencies comparable to those of the small-scale eddies that dominate turbulence near the surface. We show that this strategy leads to drag reduction levels up to 25% at $${{{{{{{{\mathrm{Re}}}}}}}}}_{\tau }$$ Re τ = 6,000, but with a power cost that exceeds any drag-reduction savings. The second pathway is new, and it involves actuation at frequencies comparable to those of the large-scale eddies farther from the surface. This alternate pathway produces drag reduction of 13% at $${{{{{{{{\mathrm{Re}}}}}}}}}_{\tau }$$ Re τ = 12,800. It requires significantly less power and the drag reduction grows with Reynolds number, thereby opening up potential new avenues for reducing fuel consumption by transport vehicles and increasing power generation by wind turbines.
Liquid-infused surfaces present a novel, passive method of turbulent drag reduction. Inspired by the Nepenthes Pitcher Plant, liquid-infused surfaces utilize a lubricating fluid trapped within structured roughness to facilitate a slip at the effective surface. The conceptual idea is similar to that of superhydrophobic surfaces, which rely on a lubricating air layer, whereas liquid-infused surfaces use a preferentially wetting liquid lubricant to create localized fluid–fluid interfaces. Maintaining the presence of these slipping interfaces has been shown to be an effective method of passively reducing skin friction drag in turbulent flows. Given that liquid-infused surfaces have only recently been considered for drag reduction applications, there is no available framework to relate surface and lubricant characteristics to any resulting drag reduction. Here we use results from direct numerical simulations of turbulent channel flow over idealized, liquid-infused grooves to demonstrate that the drag reduction achieved using liquid-infused surfaces can be described using the framework established for superhydrophobic surfaces. These insights can be used to explain drag reduction results observed in experimental studies of lubricant-infused surfaces. We also demonstrate how a liquid-infused surface can reduce drag even when the viscosity of the lubricant exceeds that of the external fluid flow, which at first glance can seem counter-intuitive.
Direct Numerical Simulations of two superposed fluids in a channel with a textured surface on the lower wall have been carried out. A parametric study varying the viscosity ratio between the two fluids has been performed to mimic both idealised superhydrophobic and liquid-infused surfaces and assess its effect on the frictional, form and total drag for three different textured geometries: longitudinal square bars, transversal square bars and staggered cubes. The interface between the two fluids is assumed to be slippery in the streamwise and spanwise directions and not deformable in the vertical direction, corresponding to the ideal case of infinite surface tension. To identify the role of the fluid-fluid interface, an extra set of simulations with a single fluid has been carried out. Comparison with the cases with two fluids reveals the role of the interface in suppressing turbulent transport between the lubricating layer and the overlying flow decreasing the overall drag. In addition, the drag and the maximum wall-normal velocity fluctuations were found to be highly correlated for all the surface configurations, whether they reduce or increase the drag. This implies that the structure of the near-wall turbulence is dominated by the total shear and not by the local boundary condition of
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