scholarly journals Vortex organization in the outer region of the turbulent boundary layer

2000 ◽  
Vol 422 ◽  
pp. 1-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. ADRIAN ◽  
C. D. MEINHART ◽  
C. D. TOMKINS

The structure of energy-containing turbulence in the outer region of a zero-pressure- gradient boundary layer has been studied using particle image velocimetry (PIV) to measure the instantaneous velocity fields in a streamwise-wall-normal plane. Experiments performed at three Reynolds numbers in the range 930 < Reθ < 6845 show that the boundary layer is densely populated by velocity fields associated with hairpin vortices. (The term ‘hairpin’ is here taken to represent cane, hairpin, horseshoe, or omega-shaped vortices and deformed versions thereof, recognizing these structures are variations of a common basic flow structure at different stages of evolution and with varying size, age, aspect ratio, and symmetry.) The signature pattern of the hairpin consists of a spanwise vortex core located above a region of strong second-quadrant fluctuations (u < 0 and v > 0) that occur on a locus inclined at 30–60° to the wall.In the outer layer, hairpin vortices occur in streamwise-aligned packets that propagate with small velocity dispersion. Packets that begin in or slightly above the buffer layer are very similar to the packets created by the autogeneration mechanism (Zhou, Adrian & Balachandar 1996). Individual packets grow upwards in the streamwise direction at a mean angle of approximately 12°, and the hairpins in packets are typically spaced several hundred viscous lengthscales apart in the streamwise direction. Within the interior of the envelope the spatial coherence between the velocity fields induced by the individual vortices leads to strongly retarded streamwise momentum, explaining the zones of uniform momentum observed by Meinhart & Adrian (1995). The packets are an important type of organized structure in the wall layer in which relatively small structural units in the form of three-dimensional vortical structures are arranged coherently, i.e. with correlated spatial relationships, to form much longer structures. The formation of packets explains the occurrence of multiple VITA events in turbulent ‘bursts’, and the creation of Townsend's (1958) large-scale inactive motions. These packets share many features of the hairpin models proposed by Smith (1984) and co-workers for the near-wall layer, and by Bandyopadhyay (1980), but they are shown to occur in a hierarchy of scales across most of the boundary layer.In the logarithmic layer, the coherent vortex packets that originate close to the wall frequently occur within larger, faster moving zones of uniform momentum, which may extend up to the middle of the boundary layer. These larger zones are the induced interior flow of older packets of coherent hairpin vortices that originate upstream and over-run the younger, more recently generated packets. The occurence of small hairpin packets in the environment of larger hairpin packets is a prominent feature of the logarithmic layer. With increasing Reynolds number, the number of hairpins in a packet increases.

2010 ◽  
Vol 644 ◽  
pp. 35-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. E. ELSINGA ◽  
R. J. ADRIAN ◽  
B. W. VAN OUDHEUSDEN ◽  
F. SCARANO

Tomographic particle image velocimetry was used to quantitatively visualize the three-dimensional coherent structures in a supersonic (Mach 2) turbulent boundary layer in the region between y/δ = 0.15 and 0.89. The Reynolds number based on momentum thickness Reθ = 34000. The instantaneous velocity fields give evidence of hairpin vortices aligned in the streamwise direction forming very long zones of low-speed fluid, consistent with Tomkins & Adrian (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 490, 2003, p. 37). The observed hairpin structure is also a statistically relevant structure as is shown by the conditional average flow field associated to spanwise swirling motion. Spatial low-pass filtering of the velocity field reveals streamwise vortices and signatures of large-scale hairpins (height > 0.5δ), which are weaker than the smaller scale hairpins in the unfiltered velocity field. The large-scale hairpin structures in the instantaneous velocity fields are observed to be aligned in the streamwise direction and spanwise organized along diagonal lines. Additionally the autocorrelation function of the wall-normal swirling motion representing the large-scale hairpin structure returns positive correlation peaks in the streamwise direction (at 1.5δ distance from the DC peak) and along the 45° diagonals, which also suggest a periodic arrangement in those directions. This is evidence for the existence of a spanwise–streamwise organization of the coherent structures in a fully turbulent boundary layer.


2011 ◽  
Vol 673 ◽  
pp. 80-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAE HWA LEE ◽  
HYUNG JIN SUNG

Direct numerical simulation of a turbulent boundary layer was performed to investigate the spatially coherent structures associated with very-large-scale motions (VLSMs). The Reynolds number was varied in the range Reθ = 570–2560. The main simulation was conducted by using a computational box greater than 50δo in the streamwise domain, where δo is the boundary layer thickness at the inlet, and inflow data was obtained from a separate inflow simulation based on Lund's method. Inspection of the three-dimensional instantaneous fields showed that groups of hairpin vortices are coherently arranged in the streamwise direction and that these groups create significantly elongated low- and high-momentum regions with large amounts of Reynolds shear stress. Adjacent packet-type structures combine to form the VLSMs; this formation process is attributed to continuous stretching of the hairpins coupled with lifting-up and backward curling of the vortices. The growth of the spanwise scale of the hairpin packets occurs continuously, so it increases rapidly to double that of the original width of the packets. We employed the modified feature extraction algorithm developed by Ganapathisubramani, Longmire & Marusic (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 478, 2003, p. 35) to identify the properties of the VLSMs of hairpin vortices. In the log layer, patches with the length greater than 3δ–4δ account for more than 40% of all the patches and these VLSMs contribute approximately 45% of the total Reynolds shear stress included in all the patches. The VLSMs have a statistical streamwise coherence of the order of ~6δ; the spatial organization and coherence decrease away from the wall, but the spanwise width increases monotonically with the wall-normal distance. Finally, the application of linear stochastic estimation demonstrated the presence of packet organization in the form of a train of packets in the log layer.


2018 ◽  
Vol 859 ◽  
pp. 543-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Kevin ◽  
Jason Monty ◽  
Nicholas Hutchins

We investigate the behaviour of large-scale coherent structures in a spanwise-heterogeneous turbulent boundary layer, using particle image velocimetry on multiple orthogonal planes. The statistical three-dimensionality is imposed by a herringbone riblet surface, although the key results presented here will be common to many cases of wall turbulence with embedded secondary flows in the form of mean streamwise vortices. Instantaneous velocity fields in the logarithmic layer reveal elongated low-momentum streaks located over the upwash-flow region, where their spanwise spacing is forced by the $2\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ periodicity of the herringbone pattern. These streaks largely resemble the turbulence structures that occur naturally (and randomly located) in spanwise-homogeneous smooth-/rough-wall boundary layers, although here they are directly formed by the roughness pattern. In the far outer region, the large spanwise spacing permits the streaks to aggressively meander. The mean secondary flows are the time-averaged artefact of the unsteady and spanwise asymmetric large-scale roll modes that accompany these meandering streaks. Interestingly, this meandering, or instability, gives rise to a pronounced streamwise periodicity (i.e. an alternating coherent pattern) in the spatial statistics, at wavelengths of approximately 4.5$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$. Overall, the observed behaviours largely resemble the streak-instability model that has been proposed for the buffer region, only here at a much larger scale and at a forced spanwise spacing. This observation further confirms recent observations that such features may occur at an entire hierarchy of scales throughout the turbulent boundary layer.


The coherent motions identified in passively marked turbulent boundary-layer experiments are reviewed. Data obtained in our laboratory using simultaneous hot-wire anemometry and flow visualization are analysed to provide measures of the percent contribution of the coherent motions to the total Reynolds stress. A coherent structure model is then developed. In the outer region the model incorporates the large-scale motions, the typical eddies and their interactions. In the wall region the model is characterized by the long streaks, their associated hairpin vortices, and the pockets with their associated pocket and hairpin vortices. The motions in both regions have unique phase relations which play an important role in their evolution and the resulting intensity of their interactions. In addition, the inner-outer region interactions are seen to be strong because typical eddies, microscale motions which can directly initiate the bursting process near a wall, are convected towards the wall by the response of the high speed outer region fluid to the presence of the large-scale motions. This interaction establishes a phasing between the inner and outer regions. The length and velocity scales of the typical eddy are used to remove the Reynolds number dependence of the stream wise fluctuations and the Reynolds stress in the fully turbulent portion of turbulent boundary layers over a wide range of Reynolds numbers


2013 ◽  
Vol 715 ◽  
pp. 477-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zambri Harun ◽  
Jason P. Monty ◽  
Romain Mathis ◽  
Ivan Marusic

AbstractResearch into high-Reynolds-number turbulent boundary layers in recent years has brought about a renewed interest in the larger-scale structures. It is now known that these structures emerge more prominently in the outer region not only due to increased Reynolds number (Metzger & Klewicki, Phys. Fluids, vol. 13(3), 2001, pp. 692–701; Hutchins & Marusic, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 579, 2007, pp. 1–28), but also when a boundary layer is exposed to an adverse pressure gradient (Bradshaw, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 29, 1967, pp. 625–645; Lee & Sung, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 639, 2009, pp. 101–131). The latter case has not received as much attention in the literature. As such, this work investigates the modification of the large-scale features of boundary layers subjected to zero, adverse and favourable pressure gradients. It is first shown that the mean velocities, turbulence intensities and turbulence production are significantly different in the outer region across the three cases. Spectral and scale decomposition analyses confirm that the large scales are more energized throughout the entire adverse pressure gradient boundary layer, especially in the outer region. Although more energetic, there is a similar spectral distribution of energy in the wake region, implying the geometrical structure of the outer layer remains universal in all cases. Comparisons are also made of the amplitude modulation of small scales by the large-scale motions for the three pressure gradient cases. The wall-normal location of the zero-crossing of small-scale amplitude modulation is found to increase with increasing pressure gradient, yet this location continues to coincide with the large-scale energetic peak wall-normal location (as has been observed in zero pressure gradient boundary layers). The amplitude modulation effect is found to increase as pressure gradient is increased from favourable to adverse.


1980 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Bailey

Laser-Doppler velocimetry was used to investigate the secondary flow in the endwall region of a large-scale turbine inlet-guide-vane passage. The mean and turbulent velocities were measured for three different test conditions. The different test conditions consisted of variations in the blade aspect ratio and the inlet boundary-layer thickness or all three cases, a passage vortex was identified and its development documented. The turbulent stresses within the vortex were found to be quite low in comparison with the turbulence in the inlet boundary layer.


2009 ◽  
Vol 622 ◽  
pp. 33-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. HUMBLE ◽  
G. E. ELSINGA ◽  
F. SCARANO ◽  
B. W. van OUDHEUSDEN

An experimental study is carried out to investigate the three-dimensional instantaneous structure of an incident shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interaction at Mach 2.1 using tomographic particle image velocimetry. Large-scale coherent motions within the incoming boundary layer are observed, in the form of three-dimensional streamwise-elongated regions of relatively low- and high-speed fluid, similar to what has been reported in other supersonic boundary layers. Three-dimensional vortical structures are found to be associated with the low-speed regions, in a way that can be explained by the hairpin packet model. The instantaneous reflected shock wave pattern is observed to conform to the low- and high-speed regions as they enter the interaction, and its organization may be qualitatively decomposed into streamwise translation and spanwise rippling patterns, in agreement with what has been observed in direct numerical simulations. The results are used to construct a conceptual model of the three-dimensional unsteady flow organization of the interaction.


1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. G. Gregory-Smith ◽  
Th. Biesinger

Three-dimensional turbulent and mean velocity fields have been measured within a large-scale axial turbine cascade. The results indicate a complex turbulent flow field especially within the secondary vortex. The turbulence is shown to he significantly non-isotropic, and the production and dissipation terms in the turbulent kinetic energy equation have been evaluated in order to illustrate the unusual turbulence behaviour. Comparisons with a Navier-Stokes computation indicate areas for improvement in turbulence and transition modelling.


Author(s):  
Ve´ronique Penin ◽  
Pascale Kulisa ◽  
Franc¸ois Bario

During the last few decades, the size and weight of turbo-machinery have been continuously reduced. However, by decreasing the distance between rows, rotor-stator interaction is strengthened. Two interactions now have the same magnitude: wake interaction and potential effect. Studying this effect is essential to understand rotor-stator interactions. Indeed, this phenomenon influences the whole flow, including the boundary layer of the upstream and downstream blades, ergo the stability of the flow and the efficiency of the machine. A large scale turbine cascade followed by a specially designed rotating cylinder system is used. Synchronised velocity LDA measurements on the vane profile show the flow and boundary layer behavior due to the moving bars. To help the general understanding and to corroborate our experimental results, numerical investigations are carried out with an unsteady three dimensional Navier-Stokes code. Moreover, the numerical study informs about the potential disturbance to the whole flow of the cascade.


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