Drag reduction of a square-back bluff body under constant cross-wind conditions using asymmetric shear layer forcing

Highly resolved computations using Delayed Detached Eddy Simulations (DDES) of a canonical Windsor body are carried out. The flow around the car model, which is investigated imposing different yaw angles (up to 10°), is perturbed via a small square cylinder. This control element, whose length covers the whole height of the car model, is positioned at different streamwise locations on the windward face of the model. Depending on the location of the cylinder and the initial yaw angle of the model, drag increase or decrease up to 8% are observed. This sensitivity of the drag to the streamwise location of the cylinder is connected with the relative position of the flow reattachment on the side of the model after separation, which is caused by the cylinder. In the drag-optimal case where the flow reattachment occurs just at the streamwise location of the base, the asymmetry of the wake is reduced and the pressure in the wake is globally recovered. The flow mechanisms by which the drag reduction occur are twofold: (i) the flow is deviated inwards by the in-wash induced by the flow reattachment at the trailing-edge, thus acting as an inward-oriented flap, and (ii) the windward shear layer is forced by the turbulent field developing along the separated region of the perturbing cylinder. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.