Comparison of design methods for negative pressure gradient rotary bodies: A CFD study

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is used to test two body design methods which use negative pressure gradient to suppress laminar flow separation and drag reduction. The steady-state model of the Transition SST model is used to calculate the pressure distribution, wall shear stress, and drag coefficient under zero angle of attack at different velocities. Four bodies designed by two different methods are considered. Our results show the first method is superior to the body of Hansen in drag reduction and the body designed by the first method is more likely to obtain the characteristics of suppressing or eliminating separation, which can effectively improve laminar flow coverage to achieve drag reduction under higher Reynolds number conditions. The results show that the negative pressure gradient method can suppress separation and drag reduction better than the second method. This successful design method is expected to open a promising prospect for its application in the design of small drag, small noise subsonic hydrodynamic hull and underwater weapons.