Turbulent flow over thin rectangular riblets

The effect of longitudinal thin rectangular riblets aligned with the flow direction on turbulent channel flow has been investigated using direct numerical simulation. The thin riblets have been modeled using the Immersed Boundary Method (IBM) where the velocities at only one set of vertical nodes at the riblets positions are enforced to be zeros. Different spacings, ranging between 11 and 43 wall units, have been simulated aiming at the getting the optimum spacing corresponding to the maximum drag reduction while keeping the height/spacing ratio at 0.5. Reynolds number based on the friction velocity uτ and the channel half depth δ is set to 150. The flow is driven by adjusted pressure gradient so that the mass flow rate is kept constant in all the simulations. This study shows similar trend of the drag ratio to that of the experiments at the different spacings. Also, this research provides an optimum spacing of around 17 wall units leading to maximum drag reduction as experimental data. Explanation of drag increasing/decreasing mechanism is highlighted