Flow Over Micro Pillars Immersed In A Laminar Boundary Layer: Effects Of Micro-Pillar Geometry And Tandem Interaction

Abstract

The study investigates the flow development in the vicinity and wake of micro pillars mounted on a surface immersed in the inner region of a laminar boundary layer. The investigation is based on the numerical solution of the Navier Stokes equations for incompressible conditions. The height of the micro pillar is shown to significantly affect the tip and base vortices dominating the micro-pillar wake, with this effect extending up to 16 micro-pillar diameters downstream. Tandem installation of two micro pillars with a height-todiameter ratio of 4.0 eight micro-pillar diameters apart is shown to result in relatively weak aerodynamic interaction of the two micro pillars, with the wake of each micro pillar containing dominant vortical structures of comparable strength.