Eur. Phys. J. E (2018) 41: 95
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2018-11703-y

Regular Article

On the effects of surface corrugation on the hydrodynamic performance of cylindrical rigid structures

¹ DEIM, School of Engineering, University of Tuscia, Largo dell’Università, 01100, Viterbo, Italy
² SCAI, SuperComputing Applications and Innovation Department, CINECA, Via dei Tizii, 6, 00185, Rome, Italy
³ Italian Institute of Technology, P.le Aldo Moro 1, 00185, Rome, Italy
⁴ John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 33 Oxford St., 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA
⁵ Department of Enterprise Engineering “Mario Lucertini”, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133, Rome, Italy

^* e-mail: giacomo.falcucci@uniroma2.it

Received: 29 September 2017
Accepted: 17 July 2018
Published online: 24 August 2018

Abstract

In this work, we perform fully three-dimensional numerical simulations of the flow field surrounding cylindrical structures characterized by different types of corrugated surface. The simulations are carried out using the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM), considering a flow regime with a Reynolds number . The fluid-dynamic wake structure and stability are investigated by means of PSD analyses of the velocity components and by visual inspection of the vortical coherent structure evolution. Moreover, the energy dissipation of the flow is assessed by considering an equivalent discharge coefficient , which measures the total pressure losses of the flow moving around the various layout under investigation. Outcomes from our study demonstrate that the helical ridges augment energy dissipation, but might also have a role in the passive control of the characteristic frequencies of the unsteady wake flow.