Effect of Freestream Turbulence and Flow Recovery in the Wake of a Flat Plate

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.

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.


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.


1973 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 707-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Raj ◽  
B. Lakshminarayana

An analytical and experimental investigation of the near and far wake characteristics of a cascade of airfoils is reported in this paper. The measurement of mean velocity, turbulence intensity and Reynolds stress across the wake at several distances downstream of the cascade indicates that the wake is asymmetrical and this asymmetry is maintained even up to 3/4 chord length. Experiments carried out at three incidences reveal that the decay of the wake defect is strongly dependent on the downstream variation of the wake edge velocity. For a cascade, the decay rate of the wake defect is found to be slower than that of a flat plate, cylinder or symmetrical airfoil (at zero incidence). The level of turbulence and Reynolds stresses are found to be high and some comments are made regarding self-preservation and structure of the flow. Semi-theoretical expressions are given for the wake profile, and decay of the velocity defect, turbulence intensity and Reynolds stress.


1990 ◽  
Vol 217 ◽  
pp. 93-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Nakayama ◽  
B. Liu

Mean-velocity and turbulence measurements have been made in the turbulent near wake of a flat plate at various Reynolds numbers in order to investigate the low-Reynolds-number effects in this region. The results indicate that the low-Reynolds-number effects are significant enough to partially explain the discrepancies in the existing mean-velocity data. It has been found that, while the Reynolds-number-independent, inner-law similarity of the boundary layers continues to exist, the width of the inner wake that develops within the inner-law region scales with the outer variable. Therefore, the mean velocity near the wake centreline depends on the Reynolds number. It is conjectured that this is due to the influence of the large eddies of the outer layer on the spreading of the inner wake.Measured turbulence quantities indicate that sudden changes occurring just downstream of the trailing edge are independent of the Reynolds number, but the subsequent development of the turbulent stress profiles depends on the Reynolds number. The Reynolds shear stress and the mean-velocity profiles within the inner wake show approximate similarity.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Bartl ◽  
Lars Sætran

Abstract. This is a summary of the results of the fourth Blind test workshop which was held in Trondheim in October 2015. Herein, computational predictions on the performance of two in-line model wind turbines as well as the mean and turbulent wake flow are compared to experimental data measured at NTNU's wind tunnel. A detailed description of the model geometry, the wind tunnel boundary conditions and the test case specifications was published before the workshop. Expert groups within Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) were invited to submit predictions on wind turbine performance and wake flow without knowing the experimental results at the outset. The focus of this blind test comparison is to examine the model turbines' performance and wake development up until 9 rotor diameters downstream at three different atmospheric inflow conditions. Besides a spatially uniform inflow field of very low turbulence intensity (TI = 0.23 %) as well as high turbulence intensity (TI = 10.0 %), the turbines are exposed to a grid-generated atmospheric shear flow (TI = 10.1 %). Five different research groups contributed with their predictions using a variety of simulation models, ranging from fully resolved Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) models to Large Eddy Simulations (LES). For the three inlet conditions the power and the thrust force of the upstream turbine is predicted fairly well by most models, while the predictions of the downstream turbine's performance show a significantly higher scatter. Comparing the mean velocity profiles in the wake, most models approximate the mean velocity deficit level sufficiently well. However, larger variations between the models for higher downstream positions are observed. The prediction of the turbulence kinetic energy in the wake is observed to be very challenging. Both the LES model and the IDDES (Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation) model, however, are consistently managing to provide fairly accurate predictions of the wake turbulence.


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.


Author(s):  
Himanshu Tyagi ◽  
Rui Liu ◽  
David S.-K. Ting ◽  
Clifton R. Johnston

As the first stage of a comprehensive investigation of turbulence effect on the aerodynamics of sphere, the effect of freestream turbulence on the wake generated behind a sphere is investigated in this study. A 10 cm (4 in) diameter plastic sphere was placed in a wind tunnel of cross section 75 cm by 75 cm. The freestream turbulence was generated by fixing a perforated plate to the entrance of the test section. The wake was characterized using a normal constant-temperature hotwire at 30D, 40D and 50D (11.25d, 15d & 18.75d respectively) downstream of the sphere (where D = 3.75 cm is the diameter of the perforated plate hole, and d is the diameter of the sphere). The Reynolds number of the flow, based on the mean velocity and the diameter of the sphere, was 6.6 × 104. Based on the instantaneous velocity measurement, Kolmogorov length scale, integral length scale and relative turbulence intensity in the wake were deduced.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley M. Wright ◽  
Stephen T. McClain ◽  
Michael D. Clemenson

An experimental investigation of film cooling jet structure using two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (PIV) has been completed for cylindrical, simple angle (θ=35 deg) film cooling holes. The PIV measurements are coupled with detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions on the flat plate obtained using a steady state, pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique. Both the flow and surface measurements were performed in a low speed wind tunnel where the freestream turbulence intensity was varied from 1.2% to 12.5%. With this traditional film cooling configuration, the blowing ratio was varied from 0.5 to 1.5 to compare the jet structure of relatively low and high momentum cooling flows. Velocity maps of the coolant flow (in the streamwise direction) are obtained on three planes spanning a single hole: centerline, 0.25D, and 0.5D (outer edge of the film cooling hole). From the seeded jets, time averaged, mean velocity distributions of the film cooling jets are obtained near the cooled surface. In addition, turbulent fluctuations are obtained for each flow condition. Combining the detailed flow field measurements obtained using PIV (both instantaneous and time averaged) with detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions on the surface (PSP) provides a more complete view of the coolant jet-mainstream flow interaction. Near the edge of the film cooling holes, the turbulent mixing increases, and as a result the film cooling effectiveness decreases. Furthermore, the PIV measurements show the increased mixing of the coolant jet with the mainstream at the elevated freestream turbulence level resulting in a reduction in the jet to effectively protect the film cooled 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.


1982 ◽  
Vol 119 ◽  
pp. 173-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. E. Perry ◽  
M. S. Chong

In this paper an attempt is made to formulate a model for the mechanism of wall turbulence that links recent flow-visualization observations with the various quantitative measurements and scaling laws established from anemometry studies. Various mechanisms are proposed, all of which use the concept of the horse-shoe, hairpin or ‘A’ vortex. It is shown that these models give a connection between the mean-velocity distribution, the broad-band turbulence-intensity distributions and the turbulence spectra. Temperature distributions above a heated surface are also considered. Although this aspect of the work is not yet complete, the analysis for this shows promise.


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