The effects of freestream turbulence on the drag of a sphere
The effects of freestream turbulence intensity and integral length scale as freestream turbulent parameters on the drag coefficient of a solid sphere were experimentally investigated in a closed-circuit wind tunnel. The Reynolds number, Re = Ud/ν, was varied from 2.2×104 to 8×10 4 by using spheres of different sizes in addition to altering the freestream velocity, U. Two different kinds of spheres, PVC spheres with diameter d of 20, 51 and 102 mm and wooden spheres with diameter d of 20, 51, 65, 102, 140 and 210 mm, were used in Experiments I and II, respectively. The freestream turbulence intensity Tu and flow integral length scale Λ were manipulated by using orificed perforated plates. The proper combination of orificed perforated plate hole diameter, sphere size, and sphere location enabled the independent variations of turbulence intensity and relative integral length scale (Λ/d) from 1.8% to 10.7% and from 0.1 to 2.6, respectively at each studied Reynolds number in Experiment I, and in Experiment II, the independent variations of turbulence intensity and relative integral length scale (Λ/d) from 2.5% to 6.3% and from 0.04 to 3.3, respectively at each studied Reynolds number. To ease the experiment process, the sphere was fixed while the location of the orificed perforated plate was varied in Experiment II. Our 'smooth flow' (Tu < 0.3%) results agree with the standard CDversus Re results in the literature. Over the range of conditions studied, current results have confirmed that the drag always decreases with increasing Tu and the critical Reynolds number at which the drag coefficient is dramatically reduced is advanced with increasing Tu. It is found that the effectiveness of Tu in reducing CD is optimized when A is about 0.65d.
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