scholarly journals Skin friction of the wind on the Earth's surface

The mechanism by means of which momentum is transmitted to a solid surface, in order that it may exert a drag on a fluid flowing past it, is at present understood only very imperfectly. It seems certain, however, that the law of dynamical similarity is applicable to skin friction; if therefore it were possible to measure the tangential force exerted by the wind as it blows over a large tract of land, it should be equal to the skin friction on a similar small surface when subjected to the action of the very high wind which would correspond with the same value of l V/ v . In reducing the tract of land to a similar small flat plate, the trees and houses would be reduced to a mere roughness on the plate. It is to be expected therefore that, if the skin friction on unit area of the earth's surface be expressed in the form F = kp Q 2 s , (1) Q s being the wind velocity near the surface and p the density of air, the constant k will be the same as the constant which would be found in the laboratory by experimenting with a small, slightly roughened plate, if a sufficiently high value of l V/ v , could be obtained. It should be noticed, however, that the velocity which should be compared with is the velocity close to the solid surface and not the general velocity of the air in the case of a flat plate, or the mean velocity over a cross section in the case of flow in a pipe.

Author(s):  
Redha Wahidi ◽  
Walid Chakroun ◽  
Sami Al-Fahad

Turbulent boundary layer flows over a flat plate with multiple transverse square grooves spaced 10 element widths apart were investigated. Mean velocity profiles, turbulence intensity profiles, and the distributions of the skin-friction coefficients (Cf) and the integral parameters are presented for two grooved walls. The two transverse square groove sizes investigated are 5mm and 2.5mm. Laser-Doppler Anemometer (LDA) was used for the mean velocity and turbulence intensity measurements. The skin-friction coefficient was determined from the gradient of the mean velocity profiles in the viscous sublayer. Distribution of Cf in the first grooved-wall case (5mm) shows that Cf overshoots downstream of the groove and then oscillates within the uncertainty range and never shows the expected undershoot in Cf. The same overshoot is seen in the second grooved-wall case (2.5mm), however, Cf continues to oscillate above the uncertainty range and never returns to the smooth-wall value. The mean velocity profiles clearly represent the behavior of Cf where a downward shift is seen in the Cf overshoot region and no upward shift is seen in these profiles. The results show that the smaller grooves exhibit larger effects on Cf, however, the boundary layer responses to these effects in a slower rate than to those of the larger grooves.


1933 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Walter Tollmien

Abstract In this survey the author first describes certain types of turbulent flow, following which he deals successively with the production of turbulent motion; the instability of the laminar motion; fully developed turbulence; momentum interchange and mixing lengths; and relations between the shearing stress at the wall and the mean velocity distributions. Finally he takes up the calculation of skin friction for simple cases of fully developed turbulence, especially for that of the flat plate. Although the methods outlined have often led to practically useful results, it is the author’s belief that they should be considered only as advances toward the real goal of the turbulence theory. The derivation of turbulence phenomena from the hydrodynamical equations will, in his opinion, be possible only by the application of statistical methods.


1971 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Ishigaki

The time-mean skin friction of the laminar boundary layer on a flat plate which is fixed at zero incidence in a fluctuating stream is investigated analytically. Flow oscillation amplitude outside the boundary layer is assumed constant along the surface. First, the small velocity-amplitude case is treated, and approximate formulae are obtained in the extreme cases when the frequency is low and high. Next, the finite velocity-amplitude case is treated under the condition of high frequency, and it is found that the formula obtained for the small-amplitude and high-frequency case is also valid. These results show that the increase of the mean skin friction reduces with frequency and is ultimately inversely proportional to the square of frequency.The corresponding energy equation is also studied simultaneously under the condition of zero heat transfer between the fluid and the surface. It is confirmed that the time-mean surface temperature increases with frequency and tends to be proportional to the square root of frequency. Moreover, it is shown that the timemean recovery factor can be several times as large as that without flow oscillation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Vladimir Kornilov ◽  
Andrey Boiko ◽  
Ivan Kavun ◽  
Anatoliy Popkov

A generalized analysis of the results of numerical and experimental studies of air blowing into a turbulent boundary layer through finely perforated surface consisting of alternating permeable and impermeable sections of varying length providing a sudden change in the flow conditions at the boundaries of these sections is presented. The air blowing coefficient Cb determined by the mass flow rate per unit area of the active perforated sample varied in the range from 0 to 0.008. It is shown that as Cb grows, the maximum reduction in the mean surface skin-friction coefficient CF, which is the value through the permeable area of perforated sample, reaches about 65 %. When keeping the equal mass flow rate Q for all tested combinations, the mean skin-friction coefficient remains constant, independent of geometrical parameters of permeable and impermeable sections. Increasing the length of the last permeable section leads to the growth of relaxation region which is characterized by the reduced skin friction values on the impermeable part of the flat plate.


Author(s):  
Takuma Katayama ◽  
Shinsuke Mochizuki

The present experiment focuses on the vorticity diffusion in a stronger wall jet managed by a three-dimensional flat plate wing in the outer layer. Measurement of the fluctuating velocities and vorticity correlation has been carried out with 4-wire vorticity probe. The turbulent vorticity diffusion due to the large scale eddies in the outer layer is quantitatively examined by using the 4-wire vorticity probe. Quantitative relationship between vortex structure and Reynolds shear stress is revealed by means of directly measured experimental evidence which explains vorticity diffusion process and influence of the manipulating wing. It is expected that the three-dimensional outer layer manipulator contributes to keep convex profile of the mean velocity, namely, suppression of the turbulent diffusion and entrainment.


1976 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. S. Bradbury

This paper describes an investigation into the response of both the pulsed-wire anemometer and the hot-wire anemometer in a highly turbulent flow. The first part of the paper is concerned with a theoretical study of some aspects of the response of these instruments in a highly turbulent flow. It is shown that, under normal operating conditions, the pulsed-wire anemometer should give mean velocity and longitudinal turbulent intensity estimates to an accuracy of better than 10% without any restriction on turbulence level. However, to attain this accuracy in measurements of turbulent intensities normal to the mean flow direction, there is a lower limit on the turbulent intensity of about 50%. An analysis is then carried out of the behaviour of the hot-wire anemometer in a highly turbulent flow. It is found that the large errors that are known to develop are very sensitive to the precise structure of the turbulence, so that even qualitative use of hot-wire data in such flows is not feasible. Some brief comments on the possibility of improving the accuracy of the hot-wire anemometer are then given.The second half of the paper describes some comparative measurements in the highly turbulent flow immediately downstream of a normal flat plate. It is shown that, although it is not possible to interpret the hot-wire results on their own, it is possible to calculate the hot-wire response with a surprising degree of accuracy using the results from the pulsed-wire anemometer. This provides a rather indirect but none the less welcome check on the accuracy of the pulsed-wire results, which, in this very highly turbulent flow, have a certain interest in their own right.


Author(s):  
Pranav Joshi ◽  
Joseph Katz

The goal of this research is to study the effect of favorable pressure gradient (FPG) on the near wall structures of a turbulent boundary layer on a smooth wall. 2D-PIV measurements have been performed in a sink flow, initially at a coarse resolution, to characterize the development of the mean flow and (under resolved) Reynolds stresses. Lack of self-similarity of mean velocity profiles shows that the boundary layer does not attain the sink flow equilibrium. In the initial phase of acceleration, the acceleration parameter, K = v/U2dU/dx, increases from zero to 0.575×10−6, skin friction coefficient decreases and mean velocity profiles show a log region, but lack universality. Further downstream, K remains constant, skin friction coefficient increases and the mean velocity profiles show a second log region away from the wall. In the initial part of the FPG region, all the Reynolds stress components decrease over the entire boundary layer. In the latter phase, they continue to decrease in the middle of the boundary layer, and increase significantly close to the wall (below y∼0.15δ), where they collapse when normalized with the local freestream velocity. Turbulence production and wallnormal transport, scaled with outer units, show self-similar profiles close to the wall in the constant K region. Spanwise-streamwise plane data shows evidence of low speed streaks in the log layer, with widths scaling with the boundary layer thickness.


Author(s):  
F. N. Krampa-Morlu ◽  
R. Balachandar

The study of the recovery of an open channel boundary flow in the presence of increased freestream turbulence (FST) generated in the wake region of a surface mounted flat plate is presented. Detailed LDA velocity measurements were obtained upstream and downstream of the flat plate, which is 3 mm in thickness and has a thickness-to-chord ratio of 0.12. The chord is placed parallel to the flow direction. The characteristics of the mean velocity, turbulence intensity, and the velocity skewness and flatness factors were investigated. The skin friction was increased while the strength of the boundary layer wake parameter decreased in the wake region. The turbulence intensity profiles in the wake region increasingly deviated significantly from the upstream profile. Generally, the increased FST noticed in the near-wake region was observed to decay with downstream distance. As a result, the mean velocity and turbulence intensity profiles showed a general sense of recovery towards the state of the approaching flow.


1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. Quintana ◽  
M. Amitay ◽  
A. Ortega ◽  
I. J. Wygnanski

The mean and fluctuating characteristics of a plane, unsteady, laminar, wall jet were investigated experimentally for a constant wall-temperature boundary condition. Temperature and streamwise velocity profiles, including the downstream development of the thermal and hydrodynamic boundary layer thicknesses, were obtained through simultaneous hot and cold wire measurements in air. Even at relatively low temperature differences, heating or cooling of a floor surface sufficiently altered the mean velocity profile in the inner, near-wall region to produce significant effects on the jet stability. Selective forcing of the flow at the most amplified frequencies produced profound effects on the temperature and velocity fields and hence the time-averaged heat transfer and shear stress. Large amplitude excitation of the flow (up to 2 percent of the velocity measured at the jet exit plane) at a high frequency resulted in a reduction in the maximum skin friction by as much as 65 percent, with an increase in the maximum wall heat flux as high as 45 percent. The skin friction and wall heat flux were much less susceptible to low-frequency excitation.


Author(s):  
Yoshifumi Jodai ◽  
Yoshikazu Takahashi ◽  
Masashi Ichimiya ◽  
Hideo Osaka

An experimental investigation has been made on a turbulent boundary layer near the trailing edge on a long flat plate. The flow was controlled by an additional splitter plate fitted to the trailing edge along the wake center line. The length of the splitter plate, l, was varied from a half, to five times the trailing edge thickness, h. Measurements of base pressure behind the trailing edge and of mean velocity and pressure distribution in the turbulent boundary layer on the flat plate were made under the freestream zero-pressure gradient. The absolute value of the base pressure coefficient of the long flat plate was considerably smaller than that of the short flat plate without the splitter plate. A significant increase in the base pressure coefficient was achieved with the splitter plate (l / h ≧ 1), fitted to the long flat plate. Within an inner layer in the turbulent boundary layer near the trailing edge, the mean velocity increased more than that in the upstream position in the case without the splitter plate. With the splitter plate, however, the base pressure rise made the mean velocity distribution more closely approach that of a fully-developed turbulent boundary layer.


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