System and method for turbulent flow drag reduction

Abstract

The invention provides a system and method for turbulent flow drag reduction using discrete counter-rotating elements disposed adjacent a bounding surface and arranged to effectively disrupt or suppress stream-wise vortices and/or traveling waves thereby reducing turbulence and increasing fluid flow. In embodiments, the counter-rotating elements effectively decouple the interaction between traveling waves and stream-wise vortices. By using discrete counter-rotating elements as disclosed, the energy input to the counter-rotating elements is advantageously less than the energy gained from the flow rate increase. The counter-rotating elements may comprise e.g., counter-rotating strips, counter-rotating disks or a plurality of sequentially activated jets. In addition, the bounding surface may comprise a section or pipe, a substantially planar surface, etc. The counter-rotating elements may be used along a section of a pipe, on a surface of an aircraft wing, in HVAC systems, etc. Examples of fluids include, but are not limited to: water, air, natural gas, oil, etc.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.