Effect of Base Cavities on the Aerodynamic Drag of an Axisymmetric Cylinder

Abstract

SummaryBase cavities (hollow extensions mounted behind the rear end of a bluff body) are known to reduce substantially the aerodynamic drag of two-dimensional bodies. For axisymmetric bodies their effect is not well established, and the objective of this work was to assess their drag-reducing potential. Experiments were performed using three different types of base cavities, one solid walled and two ventilated, each with six different depths ranging from 0.1 to 0.9 body diameters. All three types of cavities reduced the body drag for small cavity depths, with a maximum drag coefficient reduction of 0.027 being obtained with a ventilated cavity 0.2 diameters deep. The reductions are an order of magnitude lower than those reported for two-dimensional bodies, but are achieved with a much shorter cavity depth. Although the ventilated cavities had a beneficial effect for small depths, at large depths (greater than 0.5 diameters) they had an opposite effect – a very large drag increase. The cause of this increase is as yet not understood. Hot-wire investigation revealed that base cavities suppress wake periodicity. For cavities of small depth this correlated with a reduction in drag, but for large cavity depths the trends of the intensity of the periodic motion and of drag were not always the same.