Bluff Body Drag Reduction

Bluff body flows are found in a variety of situations, from undersea oil pipelines to automotive vehicles, and are characterized by a large region of separated flow. Such flows generally involve large pressure drag and significant unsteadiness, both of which may be problematic for engineers. For the case of cars or trucks at motorway speed, the pressure drag is responsible for a large proportion of the fuel consumption. This research is focused on the modelling, estimation and feedback control of the wakes from three dimensional bodies with similar characteristics to automotive vehicles.

Related Publications

  • Mahfoze O, Moody A, Wynn A, Whalley R, Laizet S, 2019, Reducing the skin-friction drag of a turbulent boundary-layer flow with low-amplitude wall-normal blowing within a Bayesian optimisation framework, Physical Review Fluids (to appear).

  • Brackston RD, Wynn A, Morrison JF, 2018, Modelling and feedback control of vortex shedding for drag reduction of a turbulent bluff body wake, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, 71, 127-136. Link. 

  • Brackston RD, Wynn A, Morrison JF, 2016, Extremum seeking to control the amplitude and frequency of a pulsed jet for bluff body drag reduction, Experiments In Fluids, 57. Link.

  • Brackston RD, Garciá De La Cruz JM, Wynn A, Rigas G, Morrison JF, 2016, Stochastic modelling and feedback control of bistability in a turbulent bluff body wake, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 802, 726-749. Link. 

  • Rigas G, Brackston RD, Garcia de la Cruz Lopez JM, Morrison JF, Wynn A. Drag Reduction Method, Patent pending, 2015

  • Brackston RD, Garcia de la Cruz Lopez JM, Wynn A, Rigas G, Morrison JF, 2015, Feedback Control of Bistability in the Turbulent Wake of an Ahmed Body, 68th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Mechanics, Boston, USA, 2015.

  • Brackston RD, Wynn A, Morrison J.F., 2014, Observability of the turbulent wake behind an axisymmetric bluff body, 67th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Mechanics, San Francisco, USA, 2014.

Associated Group Members