Abstract
Riblets with longitudinal grooves along the streamwise direction have been used as an effective flow control technique for drag reduction. A flexible micro-riblet with v-grooves of peak-to-peak spacing of $300{\mu}m$ was made using a MEMS fabrication process of PDMS replica. The flexible micro-riblet was attached on the whole surface of a NACA0012 airfoil with which grooves are aligned with the streamwise direction. The riblet surface reduces drag coefficient about $7.9{\%}\;at\;U_o=3.3m/s$, however, it increases drag about $8{\%}\;at\;U_o=7.0m/s$, compared with the smooth airfoil without riblets. The near wake has been investigated experimentally far the cases of drag reduction ($U_o\;=\;3.3 m/s$) and drag increase ($U_o\;=\;7 m/s$). Five hundred instantaneous velocity fields were measured for each experimental condition using the cross-correlation PIV velocity field measurement technique. The instantaneous velocity fields were ensemble averaged to get spatial distribution of turbulent statistics such as turbulent kinetic energy. The experimental results were compared with those of a smooth airfoil under the same flow condition. The micro-riblet surface influences the near wake flow structure largely, especially in the region near the body surface