Numerical Investigations of Flow over Cambered Deflectors at <i>Re</i> = 1 × 10⁵: A Parametric Study

• Published in: Biomimetics
• Main Authors: Gang Wang, Zhi Wang, Zhaoqi Jiao, Pihai Gong, Changtao Guan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2025-06-01
• Subjects: cambered deflectors; bionics; hydrodynamics; CFD; metamodeling
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/10/6/385

The cambered deflectors in aquacultural facilities are applied to enhance hydrodynamic efficiencies or enable flow fields to be fully developed. Given the anticipated improvements with the bio-inspired profiles or tandem configurations, the hydrodynamics of cambered deflectors with the above features are investigated at <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>R</mi><mi>e</mi><mo>=</mo><mrow><mn>1</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mn>10</mn><mn>5</mn></msup></mrow></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>. The relationship between force coefficients and local flow behaviors for both bionic and non-bionic isolated deflectors, as well as tandem deflectors, is revealed using <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>k</mi><mo>−</mo><mi>ω</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> SST simulation. The dependencies of force coefficients on gap (<i>G</i>), stagger (<i>S</i>), and inclination angles (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi>θ</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula>) in tandem deflectors are illustrated using an updated metamodeling workflow with simulated data. It is demonstrated that the variations of force coefficients over angles of attack are related to flow physics in boundary-layer regions. The non-bionic isolated deflector with the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>θ</mi><mo>=</mo><msup><mn>10</mn><mo>∘</mo></msup></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> prevails as the decent performances of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mi>C</mi><mi>L</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi>γ</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula> globally, which is chosen in the following studies. Regarding tandem deflectors, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mi>θ</mi></semantics></math></inline-formula> plays a more vital role in drag coefficients (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mi>C</mi><mi>D</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula>) and lift coefficients (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mi>C</mi><mi>L</mi></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula>), while the influence of <i>S</i> is not quite considerable compared to <i>G</i>. Aiming for cost minimizations and lift improvements, an optimized tandem case is obtained and justified with the superiorities in flow fields. This study has provided novel insights into the designs and optimizations of cambered deflectors in aquacultural engineering.