Experimental investigation on the drag reduction characteristics of traveling wavy wall at high reynolds number in wind tunnel

Drag reduction experiments of the traveling wavy wall at high Reynolds number, ranging from 1.46×106 to 5.83×106 based on the free-stream velocity and the model length, were conducted. A suit of traveling wavy wall device was developed and its characteristics of drag reduction at high Reynolds number were investigated. The drag forces of the traveling wavy wall with various wave speeds (c) were measured at different wind speeds (U) in the FL-8 low-speed wind tunnel and compared with the drag force of the flat plate. The results show that the mean drag force of the traveling wavy wall decreases as the value of c/U increases, at different wind velocities, the values of c/U corresponding to minimal drag force of the traveling wavy wall are different, when the values of c/U are larger than 0.6, the mean drag forces of the traveling wavy wall are smaller than those of the flat plate, and the drag reduction can be up to 60%. The drag reduction effectiveness of traveling wavy wall is thus achieved. Furthermore, as the value of c/U increases, the traveling wavy wall can restrain the separation and improve the quality of flow field.