Effect of Perforation on Vortex Characteristics of a Microvortex Generator Mounted on a Flat Plate

Abstract

The effects of perforation on the characteristics of the downstream vortex of a microvortex generator (MVG) mounted on a flat plate, are numerically investigated in this paper. A single rectangular MVG with circular and square perforation, at different locations on the MVG, is mounted on a flat plate at 16 deg installation angle with respect to the flow direction. The MVG is placed inside a turbulent boundary layer at Reynolds number of 16,293 based on MVG height and freestream velocity. The analysis is conducted using the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) modeling. The results of the analysis show that the MVG vortex is most effective when the perforation is located at the center and lower side of the MVG. The vortex strength for MVG with this perforated location is found to be much higher than the MVG without any perforation.