• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.795-801
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• 2019

The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of the skin-friction reduction by vortex control. A vortical system such as a horseshoe vortex, a hairpin vortex, and a wake region was induced around a hemisphere attached on a Perspex flat plate in the circulating water channel. Hairpin vortices were developed from the wake region and horseshoe vortices were formed by an adverse pressure gradient in front of the hemisphere. The horseshoe vortices located on the flank of the hemisphere induced a high momentum flow in the wake region by the direction of their vorticity. This process increased the frequency of the hairpin vortices as well as the frictional drag on the surface of the wake region. To reduce the skin-friction drag, suction control in front of the hemisphere was applied through a hole. Flow visualization was performed to optimize the free-stream velocity, size of the hemisphere, and size of the suction hole. Once the wall suction control mitigated the strength of the horseshoe vortex, the energy supplied to the wake region was reduced, causing the frequency of the hairpin vortex generation to decrease by 36.4 %. In addition, the change in the skin-friction drag, which was measured with a dynamometer connected to a plate in the wake region, also decreased by 2.3 %.