Intermittency measurements in the turbulent boundary layer

1966 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Fiedler ◽  
M. R. Head

An improved version of Corrsin & Kistler's method has been used to measure intermittency in favourable and adverse pressure gradients, and the characteristic parameters of the intermittency have been related to the form parameterHof the mean velocity profiles.It is found that with adverse pressure gradients the centre of intermittency moves outward from the surface while the width of the intermittent zone decreases. The converse is true of favourable pressure gradients, and it seems likely that at sufficiently low values ofHthe flow over the full depth of the layer is only intermittently turbulent.A new method of intermittency measurement is presented which makes use of a photo-electric probe. Smoke is introduced into the boundary layer and illuminated by a narrow beam of parallel light normal to the surface. The photoelectric probe is focused on the illuminated region and a signal is generated when smoke passes through the focal point of the probe lens. Comparison of this signal with the output from a hot-wire at very nearly the same point shows the identity of smoke and turbulence distributions.

1974 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 763-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. Deissler

The early and intermediate development of a highly accelerated (or decelerated) turbulent boundary layer is analysed. For sufficiently large accelerations (or pressure gradients) and for total normal strains which are not excessive, the equation for the Reynolds shear stress simplifies to give a stress that remains approximately constant as it is convected along streamlines. The theoretical results for the evolution of the mean velocity in favourable and adverse pressure gradients agree well with experiment for the cases considered. A calculation which includes mass injection at the wall is also given.


1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 787-794 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. Schwarz ◽  
M. W. Plesniak

A turbulent boundary layer subjected to multiple, additional strain rates, namely convex curvature coupled with streamwise pressure gradients (zero and favorable, ZPG and FPG) was investigated experimentally using laser Doppler velocimetry. The inapplicability of the universal flat-plate log-law to curved flows is discussed. However, a logarithmic region is found in the curved and accelerated turbulent boundary layer examined here. Similarity of the mean velocity and Reynolds stress profiles was achieved by 45 deg of curvature even in the presence of the strongest FPG investigated (k = 1.01 × 10−6). The Reynolds stresses were suppressed (with respect to flat plate values) due primarily to the effects of strong convex curvature (δo/R ≈ 0.10). In curved boundary layers subjected to different favorable pressure gradients, the mean velocity and normal Reynolds stress profiles collapsed in the inner region, but deviated in the outer region (y+ ≥ 100). Thus, inner scaling accounted for the impact of the extra strain rates on these profiles in the near-wall region. Combined with curvature, the FPG reduced the strength of the wake component, resulted in a greater suppression of the fluctuating velocity components and a reduction of the primary Reynolds shear stress throughout almost the entire boundary layer relative to the ZPG curved case.


1968 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Clark

The fully developed incompressible turbulent boundary layer in a channel has been explored using constant-temperature hot-wire anemometry. Particular attention was paid to measurements well into the viscous sublayer, yielding results which are believed to be new. Frequency spectral analyses of the fluctuating velocity components have been obtained for the inner layers. The mean velocity distribution in the sublayer has been determined with sufficient accuracy for a reasonable estimate of skin friction to be made. The results are compared with those of Laufer [11] and Comte-Bellot [4].


1970 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert R. Long

An effort is made to understand turbulence in fluid systems like the oceans and atmosphere in which the Richardson number is generally large. Toward this end, a theory is developed for turbulent flow over a flat plate which is moved and cooled in such a way as to produce constant vertical fluxes of momentum and heat. The theory indicates that in a co-ordinate system fixed in the plate the mean velocity increases linearly with heightzabove a turbulent boundary layer and the mean density decreases asz3, so that the Richardson number is large far from the plate. Near the plate, the results reduce to those of Monin & Obukhov.Thecurvatureof the density profile is essential in the formulation of the theory. When the curvature is negative, a volume of fluid, thoroughly mixed by turbulence, will tend to flatten out at a new level well above the original centre of mass, thereby transporting heat downward. When the curvature is positive a mixed volume of fluid will tend to fall a similar distance, again transporting heat downward. A well-mixed volume of fluid will also tend to rise when the density profile is linear, but this rise is negligible on the basis of the Boussinesq approximation. The interchange of fluid of different, mean horizontal speeds in the formation of the turbulent patch transfers momentum. As the mixing in the patch destroys the mean velocity shear locally, kinetic energy is transferred from mean motion to disturbed motion. The turbulence can arise in spite of the high Richardson number because the precise variations of mean density and mean velocity mentioned above permit wave energy to propagate from the turbulent boundary layer to the whole region above the plate. At the levels of reflexion, where the amplitudes become large, wave-breaking and turbulence will tend to develop.The relationship between the curvature of the density profile and the transfer of heat suggests that the density gradient near the level of a point of inflexion of the density curve (in general cases of stratified, shearing flow) will increase locally as time goes on. There will also be a tendency to increase the shear through the action of local wave stresses. If this results in a progressive reduction in Richardson number, an ultimate outbreak of Kelvin–Helmholtz instability will occur. The resulting sporadic turbulence will transfer heat (and momentum) through the level of the inflexion point. This mechanism for the appearance of regions of low Richardson number is offered as a possible explanation for the formation of the surfaces of strong density and velocity differences observed in the oceans and atmosphere, and for the turbulence that appears on these surfaces.


2011 ◽  
Vol 677 ◽  
pp. 179-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. JACOBI ◽  
B. J. McKEON

The zero-pressure-gradient turbulent boundary layer over a flat plate was perturbed by a short strip of two-dimensional roughness elements, and the downstream response of the flow field was interrogated by hot-wire anemometry and particle image velocimetry. Two internal layers, marking the two transitions between rough and smooth boundary conditions, are shown to represent the edges of a ‘stress bore’ in the flow field. New scalings, based on the mean velocity gradient and the third moment of the streamwise fluctuating velocity component, are used to identify this ‘stress bore’ as the region of influence of the roughness impulse. Spectral composite maps reveal the redistribution of spectral energy by the impulsive perturbation – in particular, the region of the near-wall peak was reached by use of a single hot wire in order to identify the significant changes to the near-wall cycle. In addition, analysis of the distribution of vortex cores shows a distinct structural change in the flow associated with the perturbation. A short spatially impulsive patch of roughness is shown to provide a vehicle for modifying a large portion of the downstream flow field in a controlled and persistent way.


1965 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. E. Perry ◽  
P. N. Joubert

The purpose of this paper is to provide some possible explantions for certain observed phenomena associated with the mean-velocity profile of a turbulent boundary layer which undergoes a rapid yawing. For the cases considered the yawing is caused by an obstruction attached to the wall upon which the boundary layer is developing. Only incompressible flow is considered.§1 of the paper is concerned with the outer region of the boundary layer and deals with a phenomenon observed by Johnston (1960) who described it with his triangular model for the polar plot of the velocity distribution. This was also observed by Hornung & Joubert (1963). It is shown here by a first-approximation analysis that such a behaviour is mainly a consequence of the geometry of the apparatus used. The analysis also indicates that, for these geometries, the outer part of the boundary-layer profile can be described by a single vector-similarity defect law rather than the vector ‘wall-wake’ model proposed by Coles (1956). The former model agrees well with the experimental results of Hornung & Joubert.In §2, the flow close to the wall is considered. Treating this region as an equilibrium layer and using similarity arguments, a three-dimensional version of the ‘law of the wall’ is derived. This relates the mean-velocity-vector distribution with the pressure-gradient vector and wall-shear-stress vector and explains how the profile skews near the wall. The theory is compared with Hornung & Joubert's experimental results. However at this stage the results are inconclusive because of the lack of a sufficient number of measured quantities.


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 664-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald J. Bergstrom ◽  
Nathan A. Kotey ◽  
Mark F. Tachie

Experimental measurements of the mean velocity profile in a canonical turbulent boundary layer are obtained for four different surface roughness conditions, as well as a smooth wall, at moderate Reynolds numbers in a wind tunnel. The mean streamwise velocity component is fitted to a correlation which allows both the strength of the wake, Π, and friction velocity, Uτ, to vary. The results show that the type of surface roughness affects the mean defect profile in the outer region of the turbulent boundary layer, as well as determining the value of the skin friction. The defect profiles normalized by the friction velocity were approximately independent of Reynolds number, while those normalized using the free stream velocity were not. The fact that the outer flow is significantly affected by the specific roughness characteristics at the wall implies that rough wall boundary layers are more complex than the wall similarity hypothesis would allow.


1970 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Kendall

An experimental study of the interaction of a turbulent boundary layer with a wavy wall was conducted in a wind tunnel. A smooth neoprene rubber sheet comprising a portion of the floor of the tunnel was mechanically deformed into 12 sinusoidal waves which progressed upwind or down at controlled speed. The turbulent layer thickness was a little less than the wavelength. The mean velocity profile was linear on a semi-log plot over a substantial range of vertical height.The wall pressure was observed to be asymmetrical about the wave profile, resulting in a pressure drag. Flow separation was not the cause of the drag. The drag was found to be larger than that predicted by the inviscid wave generation theory. The measurements indicate that the waves strongly modulate the turbulent structure. The phase of the turbulent stresses with respect to the waves varies with wave speed, indicating that the dynamical reaction time of the turbulence is not negligible in comparison with the wave period.


1958 ◽  
Vol 62 (567) ◽  
pp. 215-219
Author(s):  
T. J. Black

A New type of auxiliary equation is given for calculating the development of the form-parameter H in turbulent boundary layers with adverse pressure gradients. The chief advantage of this new method lies in the rapidity and ease of calculation which has been achieved, without apparent sacrifice of accuracy.Whereas the growth of momentum thickness in the turbulent boundary layer can now be rapidly calculated by methods involving only simple quadrature, the prediction of the form parameter development remains a laborious task, while the results obtained do not always appear to justify the complexity of the calculations.


1995 ◽  
Vol 290 ◽  
pp. 225-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Semİh M. Ölçmen ◽  
Roger L. Simpson

A three-dimensional, pressure-driven turbulent boundary layer created by an idealized wing–body junction flow was studied experimentally. The data presented include time-mean static pressure and directly measured skin-friction magnitude on the wall. The mean velocity and all Reynolds stresses from a three-velocity-component fibre-optic laser-Doppler anemometer are presented at several stations along a line determined by the mean velocity vector component parallel to the wall in the layer where the $\overline{u^2}$ kinematic normal stress is maximum (normal-stress coordinate system). This line was selected by intuitively reasoning that overlap of the near-wall flow and outer-region flow occurs at the location where $\overline{u^2}$ is maximum. Along this line the flow is subjected to a strong crossflow pressure gradient, which changes sign for the downstream stations. The shear-stress vector direction in the flow lags behind the flow gradient vector direction. The flow studied here differs from many other experimentally examined three-dimensional flows in that the mean flow variables depend on three spatial axes rather than two axes, such as flows in which the three-dimensionality of the flow has been generated either by a rotating cylinder or by a pressure gradient in one direction only throughout the flow.The data show that the eddy viscosity of the flow is not isotropic. These and other selected data sets show that the ratio of spanwise to streamwise eddy viscosities in the wall-shear-stress coordinate system is less scattered and more constant (about 0.6) than in the local free-stream coordinate system or the normal stress coordinate system. For y+ > 50 and y/δ < 0.8, the ratio of the magnitude of the kinematic shear stress |τ/ρ| to the kinematic normal stress $\overline{v^2}$ is approximately a constant for three-dimensional flow stations of both shear-driven and pressure-driven three-dimensional flows. In the same region, the ratio of the kinematic shear stresses $-\overline{vw}/-\overline{uw}$ appears to be a function of y+ in wall-stress coordinates for three-dimensional pressure-driven flows.


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