Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-20T15:44:48.010Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the origin of streamwise vortices in a turbulent boundary layer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2006

P. S. Jang
Affiliation:
Dynamics Technology, Inc., Torrance, CA 90503
D. J. Benney
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
R. L. Gran
Affiliation:
Dynamics Technology, Inc., Torrance, CA 90503

Abstract

Several experiments have suggested that streamwise vortices, with their accompany-ing low-momentum streaks in a turbulent boundary layer have a characteristic spanwise wavelength of approximately λz+ = 100. Here a mechanism is proposed which selects a comparable spanwise wavelength and produces counter-rotating streamwise vortices in a turbulent boundary layer. Examining the equations which describe the deviation of the velocity field from its time-average, it is found that a resonance (Benney & Gustavsson 1981), is associated with the mean-velocity profile. As an integral part of this resonance, there is a mean secondary flow which has a spanwise wavelength λz+ = 90 and whose velocities exhibit a streamwise vortex structure similar to those observed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1986 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bark, F. H. 1975 J. Fluid Mech. 70, 229.
Benney, D. J. 1961 J. Fluid Mech. 10, 209.
Benney, D. J. 1984 Stud. Appl. Math. 70, 1.
Benney, D. J. & Gustavsson, L. H. 1981 Stud. Appl. Math. 64, 185.
Blackwelder, R. F. 1979 In Coherent Structures of Turbulent Boundary Layers (ed. C. R. Smith & D. E. Abbott), p. 211 Lehigh University.
Blackwelder, R. F. 1983 Phys. Fluids 26, 2807.
Blackwelder, R. F. & Kaplan, R. E. 1976 J. Fluid Mech. 76, 89.
Cantwell, B. J. 1981 Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 13, 457.
Coles, D. 1979 In Coherent Structures of Turbulent Boundary Layers (ed. C. R. Smith & D. E. Abbott), p. 462 Lehigh University.
Corino, E. R. & Brodkey, R. S. 1969 J. Fluid Mech. 37, 1.
Kim, J. 1983 Phys. Fluids 26, 2088.
Klebanoff, P. D., Tidstrom, D. & Sargent, L. M. 1962 J. Fluid Mech. 12, 1.
Kline, S. J., Reynolds, W. D., Schraub, J. A. & Renstadler, P. W. 1967 J. Fluid Mech. 30, 74.
Landahl, M. T. 1967 J. Fluid Mech. 29, 441.
Lin, C. C. & Benney, D. J. 1962 Am. Math. Soc., Proc. Symp. Appl. Math. 13, 1.
Mack, L. M. 1976 J. Fluid Mech. 73, 497.
Morrison, W. R. B. & Kronauer, R. E. 1969 J. Fluid Mech. 39, 117.
Reischman, M. M. & Tiderman, W. G. 1975 J. Fluid Mech. 70, 369.
Reynolds, W. C. & Hussain, A. K. M. F. 1972 J. Fluid Mech. 54, 263.
Stuart, J. T. 1967 J. Fluid Mech. 29, 417.
Wallace, J. W., Brodkey, R. S. & Eckelmann, H. 1977 J. Fluid Mech. 83, 673.