Robust design of microbubble drag reduction in a channel flow using the Taguchi method

This study attempts to obtain optimum parametric levels for robust design of the microbubble drag reduction in a turbulent channel flow. This work was carried out experimentally by measuring the frictional resistance on the upper wall of the channel to analyze the efficiency of drag reduction. Considering the mean flow speed as an indicative factor, several controllable factors that influence the effect of microbubble drag reduction were investigated in this work by using the Taguchi method. The controllable factors in this study were the amount of air injected, area of air injection, and microbubble size. For the condition of optimum parametric levels, the effect of drag reduced could reach up to 21.6%.