Active control of a turbulent boundary layer based on local surface perturbation

Abstract Active control of a turbulent boundary layer has been experimentally investigated with a view to reducing the skin-friction drag and gaining some insight into the mechanism that leads to drag reduction. A spanwise-aligned array of piezo-ceramic actuators was employed to generate a transverse travelling wave along the wall surface, with a specified phase shift between adjacent actuators. Local skin-friction drag exhibits a strong dependence on control parameters, including the wavelength, amplitude and frequency of the oscillation. A maximum drag reduction of 50 % has been achieved at 17 wall units downstream of the actuators. The near-wall flow structure under control, measured using smoke–wire flow visualization, hot-wire and particle image velocimetry techniques, is compared with that without control. The data have been carefully analysed using techniques such as streak detection, power spectra and conditional averaging based on the variable-interval time-average detection. All the results point to a pronounced change in the organization of the perturbed boundary layer. It is proposed that the actuation-induced wave generates a layer of highly regularized streamwise vortices, which acts as a barrier between the large-scale coherent structures and the wall, thus interfering with the turbulence production cycle and contributing partially to the drag reduction. Associated with the generation of regularized vortices is a significant increase, in the near-wall region, of the mean energy dissipation rate, as inferred from a substantial decrease in the Taylor microscale. This increase also contributes to the drag reduction. The scaling of the drag reduction is also examined empirically, providing valuable insight into the active control of drag reduction.