Turbulent Spots in Strong Adverse Pressure Gradients: Part 2 — Spot Propagation and Spreading Rates
The study of turbulent spots in strong adverse pressure gradients is of current interest in turbomachinery research. The aim of this investigation is to use information gathered from boundary layer transition and laminar separation, in wind tunnel tests on flat plates, to predict the equivalent phenomena occurring on turbomachinery blade surfaces. In Part 1 turbulent spot behavior was documented for two Reynolds numbers, corresponding to a laminar separation bubble (LSB) and an incipient separation condition (IS). In Part 2 further results are reported characterizing typical spot propagation and spreading rates and serving to validate or modify existing correlations for predicting transition length.