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Effects of spanwise spacing on large-scale secondary flows in rough-wall turbulent boundary layers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2015

Christina Vanderwel Open the ORCID record for Christina Vanderwel [Opens in a new window]  and
Bharathram Ganapathisubramani
Christina Vanderwel
Affiliation:
Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Research Group, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Bharathram Ganapathisubramani*
Affiliation:
Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Research Group, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

Large-scale secondary flows can sometimes appear in turbulent boundary layers formed over rough surfaces, creating low- and high-momentum pathways along the surface (Barros & Christensen, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 748, 2014, R1). We investigate experimentally the dependence of these secondary flows on surface/flow conditions by measuring the flows over streamwise strips of roughness with systematically varied spanwise spacing. We find that the large-scale secondary flows are accentuated when the spacing of the roughness elements is roughly proportional to the boundary layer thickness ${\it\delta}$, and do not appear for cases with finer spacing. Cases with coarser spacing also generate ${\it\delta}$-scale secondary flows with tertiary flows in the spaces in between. These results show that the ratio of the spanwise length scale of roughness heterogeneity to the boundary layer thickness is a critical parameter for the occurrence of these secondary motions in turbulent boundary layers over rough walls.

JFM classification

Boundary Layers: Boundary layer structure Turbulent Flows: Turbulent boundary layers Turbulent Flows: Turbulent Flows
Type
Rapids
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 774 , 10 July 2015 , R2
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Copyright
© 2015 Cambridge University Press 

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