Investigation of the Turbulent Boundary Layer Structure over a Sparsely Spaced Biomimetic Spine-Covered Protrusion Surface

[Image: see text] Multiperspective particle image velocimetry was used to investigate the turbulent boundary layer structure over biomimetic spine-covered protrusion (BSCP) samples inspired by dorsal skin of pufferfish. The comparison of BSCP samples of two sparse “k-type” arrangements (aligned and staggered) with roughness height k(+) = 5–7 (nearly hydraulically smooth) and smooth case were manufactured in bulk Reynolds number Re(b) = 37,091, 44,510. The negative value of the roughness function ΔU(+) shows a downward shift of the mean velocity profile of BSCP samples, which shows a drag reduction effect. The results of turbulent statistics present strong fluctuation over the aligned case in the streamwise direction, while little influence is observed in the wall-normal and spanwise direction, which promotes turbulence stability. The same phenomenon was found based on the probability density function of fluctuation velocity that the suppression of turbulent flow is better over the staggered case. It is obvious that the shear stress induced is governed by the streamwise fluctuations. Furthermore, the Q-criterion and the λ(ci)-criterion improved with vorticity ω were introduced for vortex identification, which indicates less prograde vortex population and weaker swirling strength over BSCP samples than over the smooth one. Finally, the spatial coherent structure appeared similar and more orderly over the staggered case in the streamwise and wall-normal direction based on the analysis of two-point correlations R(uu). These results provide further guidance to reveal the mechanism of drag reduction on the BSCP surface.