UTHM Conference Portal, International Conference on Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering (ICME2015)

Font Size: 
Riblets for Airfoil Drag Reduction in Subsonic Flow
Mohd Rashdan Saad

Last modified: 2015-08-27

Abstract


The use of riblet was inspired by the surface of shark skin. The tiny scales covering the skin of fast swimming sharks, known as dermal denticles (skin teeth), are shaped like small riblets and aligned in the direction of fluid flow. They are micro in size and viewed closely, they for the shape of a sawtooth. Riblets are most widely made into films and are micro scaled. Placing riblets on the surface of an airfoil have shown a decent percentage of drag reduction to the airfoil. In this research study, simulation testings were done on riblets with different dimension in the height and spacing of riblets. Ultimately the application of riblets on airfoils has proven a decent result. The optimized riblet dimension further reduced drag up to approximately 46%.


Keywords


riblets; airfoil; drag coefficient; wind tunnel; taguchi; optimization