Reducing Drag of Body by Adding a Plate

Abstract

This paper focuses on theoretical investigations of the location of a separation point laminar boundary layer on the surface of a circular cylinder. The investigations were carried out by CFD software FlowSimulation. The displacement of the separation point on the surface of the circular cylinder is achieved by installing a flat plate in front of the cylinder parallel to the flow. It was found that the greatest displacement of the separation point to the back of the cylinder is possible when the chord of the plate equals to a quarter of the diameter of the circular cylinder. The flat plate allows not only to change the position of the separation point but also to reduce the drag by about 25%.