The Mystery of Skin Friction from Tripping Resolved

This is a continuation of the previous post on DFS as the first predictive CFD methodology based on first principle physics without need of turbulence or wall models. In particular, DFS uses a slip boundary condition on a solid wall as expressing physics of the observed very small skin friction of a slightly viscous fluid.

DFS is a new approach to CFD which for over a century has been dominated by a dictate by Prandtl as the Father of Modern Fluid Dynamics, that thin boundary layers will have to be computationally resolved, which however is projected to be possible only in 2080. 

DFS shows that a slip boundary condition circumvents the Prandtl dictate and makes CFD computable already today meeting in particular the NASA 2030 vision.

The total drag of a body has contribution from (i) form or pressure drag and (ii) skin friction drag.

It is commonly believed that skin friction drag can be 50% of total drag. This is based on flat plate experiments where the force from the fluid over a flat surface is measured to a give a skin friction coefficient. Typically the flow is tripped by a flow transversal device like a rib with the objective to create a turbulent boundary layer. Experiments show that the skin friction with tripping is bigger than without tripping, in which case the boundary layer is less turbulent than with tripping.

To estimate the skin friction of a bluff body like an airplane or wing the tripped flat plate skin friction cofficient (multiplying the area of the body) is used although the flow around the bluff body is not tripped. This may give a skin friction up to 50% of total drag for a slender body, but there is a caveat: The skin friction coefficient is the result of tripping, while the bluff body flow has no tripping. If the un-tripped skin friction coefficient was used a much smaller skin friction for the body would result.

There is thus a lack of logic in conventional CFD: The skin friction coefficient is determined with tripping, while real flow is without tripping. The result is large skin friction drag, up to 50% of total drag.

In DFS with slip, skin friction drag is zero, yet DFS gives correct total drag for an airplane and wing without tripping.

The conclusion is that conventional CFD attributes too much to skin friction by using a skin friction coefficient determined from tripped flat plate experiments, which comes out to be too large when applied to a non-tripped real case.

DFS with slip thus resolves a basic open problem of fluid mechanics. DFS makes CFD computable.

A slip boundary conditions models physics, while the conventional no-slip condition does not.

More precisely, the boundary layer of a real smooth body is neither fully turbulent (too much drag), nor fully laminar (no-slip condition), but instead acts with slip as if non-existent. This is major news.