Passive drag reduction on a sphere using azimuthally spaced surface protrusions: effects of protrusion number at fixed coverage

This study experimentally investigates passive drag reduction on a sphere using azimuthally spaced surface protrusions under subcritical Reynolds numbers, focusing on the effects of the protrusion number at fixed surface coverage. The proposed surface modification strategy, termed partial protrusions, maintains a constant total protruded area while varying the number of protrusions $N$ , thereby adjusting their azimuthal spacing. The objective is to determine whether such configurations can outperform the conventional full protrusion, in which protrusions continuously surround the azimuthal direction, and to elucidate the flow mechanisms behind any observed enhancement. Drag and flow field measurements reveal that increasing $N$ significantly improves aerodynamic performance. When $N$ exceeds a certain threshold, the partial-protrusion configuration achieves a greater drag reduction than the full-protrusion case, despite using only half the surface coverage. For low $N$ , asymmetric pressure distributions across the protruded and smoothed sides induce unsteady separation delay, leading to shear-layer oscillations and elevated turbulent kinetic energy. As $N$ increases, the azimuthal spacing between protrusions decreases, promoting stable interaction between the two sides and leading to separation delay farther downstream than in the full-protrusion case, along with suppression of flow unsteadiness. These results demonstrate that a well-designed partial-protrusion configuration can outperform the full-protrusion configuration in drag reduction and unsteadiness control, offering new insights into effective passive flow control strategies for bluff body flows.