Aerodynamic Drag Reduction by the Trapezoid Spanwise Groove Inspired by Pigeon Feathers

Yanqing Wang, Yuju Wei, Ding Weng () and Jiadao Wang ()
Additional contact information
Yanqing Wang: State Key Laboratory of Tribology in Advanced Equipment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Yuju Wei: State Key Laboratory of Tribology in Advanced Equipment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Ding Weng: State Key Laboratory of Tribology in Advanced Equipment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Jiadao Wang: State Key Laboratory of Tribology in Advanced Equipment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-13

Abstract: Inspired by pigeon feathers, the drag-reducing contribution of spanwise grooves was studied. Surface topography of the wing feather was scanned by an instrument of white light interference. Three types of grooves of triangle, rectangle, and trapezoid were adopted based on the unsymmetric microstructures found on the feather surface. Numerical simulations were conducted to analyze drag-reducing mechanisms. According to the simulation results, the rectangular groove reduced the wall shear stress more efficiently but with greater additional pressure drag, while the triangular groove was the opposite. For the trapezoidal groove similar to the feather structure, drag reduction was the best out of the three. Wind tunnel experiments for the trapezoidal groove were performed by using a cylindrical model and large-area plate. Drag reduction was confirmed from the cylindrical model at a series of velocities from 15 m/s to 90 m/s (about 16% at velocity of 30 m/s and about 8.5% at velocity of 60 m/s). Drag reduction was also obtained from the plate model at a velocity range of 30 m/s to 75 m/s (about 19% at the velocity of 60 m/s), which worked for a wide range of velocity and was more meaningful for the application.

Keywords: drag reduction; spanwise groove; bionics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2379/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2379/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2379-:d:1085197

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().