Engineering evaluation of drag reduction on wing surface with riblets

Abstract Compared with smooth surface, the surface with riblet structure can effectively reduce the turbulence wall-skin friction. An engineering evaluation of drag reduction on wing surface with riblets is conducted in this study. The results demonstrate that the drag reduction effect of the ribbed surface can be effectively modelled by specifying the wall shear stress in the boundary slip condition. The wall shear stress of the surface with specific riblet structure is 0.9417 times that of the smooth surface. The drag reduction rates of the ribbed surface for the civil aircraft increase with Reynolds number, which are 4.91% (Re=3.21×10 6 ), 4.93% (Re=5.68×10 6 ), and 4.95% (Re=6.13×10 6 ).