Flow separation increases the drag and noise of underwater vehicles, and influences the controllability of their control surfaces. Therefore, the influence of slip caused by superhydrophobic surfaces on drag reduction and flow separation is studied.

A partial slip boundary condition is developed, and the flow around a circular cylinder and foil with a slip boundary at high Reynolds numbers are numerically simulated.

The results show that the when the slip length increases, the flow around the cylinder goes through three stages: the turbulent Kármán vortex street, laminar Kármán vortex street and non-separation Stokes flow. The drag coefficient increases first and then decreases, and the vortex shedding frequency increases. For flow around a foil, the separation position moves downstream until the separation region disappears when the slip length increases, and the drag coefficient decreases while the lift coefficient increases.

The results of this study show that for flow past bluff body at high Reynolds number, the slip boundary can control flow separation and reduce drag effectively, providing technical support for the application of superhydrophobic surfaces for the flow control of underwater vehicle appendages.