Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T02:10:46.113Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Experimental investigation of coherent structures in turbulent boundary layers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

C. E. Wark  and
H. M. Nagib
C. E. Wark
Affiliation:
Fluid Dynamics Research Center, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, 60616, USA
H. M. Nagib
Affiliation:
Fluid Dynamics Research Center, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, 60616, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The events which are responsible for strong Reynolds-stress production in the near-wall region of a bounded turbulent shear flow have been investigated in a turbulent boundary layer at a Reynolds number based on momentum thickness of Reθ = 4650. The coherent structures associated with the production process have been studied using the quadrant detection technique. All three velocity components were measured in a three-dimensional sampling volume about the point of detection. The conditional ensemble-averaged velocity field associated with the detection of a sweep or an ejection is presented and compared with non-conditioned space–time correlations. Conditional space–time probability density distributions were calculated at all measurement locations based on the occurrence of a Reynolds-stress-producing event at the detection point. The resulting three-dimensional representation of the conditional probability demonstrates that a significant fraction of the events are relatively large in scale, that a hierarchy of sizes exists and that there is a link between the outer flow and the ’bursting’ process. However, many investigators have shown that the ’bursting’ frequency scales with wall variables. Therefore all indications suggest that the scales are generated by a wall-layer mechanism but grow to sizes and convect with velocities scaling with the outer layer.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 230 , September 1991 , pp. 183 - 208
Copyright
© 1991 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

Alfredsson, P. H. & Johansson, A. V. 1984 Time scales in turbulent channel flow. Phys. Fluids. 27, 1974–1981.Google Scholar
Bakewellv, H. P. & Lumley, J. L. 1967 Viscous sublayer and adjacent region in turbulent pipe flow. Phys. Fluids. 10, 1880–1889.Google Scholar
Blackwelder, R. F. & ECkelmann, H. 1979 Streamwise vortices associated with the bursting phenomenon. J. Fluid Mech. 94, 577–594.Google Scholar
Blackwelder, R. F. & Haritonidis, J. H. 1983 Scaling of the bursting frequency in turbulent boundary layers. J. Fluid Mech. 132, 87–103.Google Scholar
Blackwelder, R. F. & Kaplan, R. E. 1976 On the wall structure of the turbulent boundary layers. J. Fluid Mech. 76, 89–112.Google Scholar
Blackwelder, R. F. & Kovasnay, L. S. G. 1972 Time scales and correlations in a turbulent boundary layer. Phys. Fluids. 15, 1545–1554.Google Scholar
Bogard, D. G. & Tiederman, W. G. 1986 Burst detection with single-point velocity measurements. J. Fluid Mech. 162, 389–413.Google Scholar
Bbodkey, R. S., Wallace, J. M. & Eckelmann, H. 1974 Some properties of truncated turbulence signals in bounded shear flows. J. Fluid Mech. 63, 209–224.Google Scholar
Chen, C. H. P. & Blackwelder, R. F. 1978 Large scale motion in a turbulent boundary layer: a study using temperature contamination. J. Fluid Mech. 89, 1–31.Google Scholar
Corino, E. R. & Bbodkey, R. S. 1969 A visual investigation of the wall region in turbulent flows. J. Fluid Mech. 37, 1–30.Google Scholar
Guezennec, Y. G. 1985 Documentation of large coherent structures associated with wall events in turbulent boundary layers. Ph.D. thesis, Illinois Institute of Technology.
Guezennec, Y. G. & Nagib, H. M. 1990 Drag reduction in turbulent boundary layers. AIAA J. 28, 245–252.Google Scholar
Guezennec, Y. G., Piomelli, U. & Kim, J. 1987 Conditionally-averaged structures in wall-bounded turbulent flows. In Proc. 1987 Summer Program, Center for Turbulence Research, Stanford, CA, pp. 263–272.
Head, M. R. & Bandyopadhyay, P. 1981 New aspects of turbulent boundary-layer structure. J. Fluid Mech. 107, 297–337.Google Scholar
Johansson, A. V., Alfredsson, P. H. & Kim, J. 1987 Shear-layer structures in near-wall turbulence. In Proc. 1987 Summer Program, Center for Turbulence Research, Stanford, CA, pp. 237–251.
Kasagi, N., Hirata, M. & Nishion, K. 1986 Streamwise pseudo-vortical structures and associated vorticity in the near-wall region of a wall-bounded turbulent shear flow. Exps Fluids. 4, 309–318.Google Scholar
Kim, H. T., Kline, S. J. & Reynolds, W. C. 1971 The production of turbulence near a smooth wall in a turbulent boundary layer. J. Fluid Mech. 50, 133–160.Google Scholar
KiM, J. 1985 Turbulence structure associated with the bursting event. Phys. Fluids.28, 52–58.Google Scholar
Kim, J. & Spalart, P. R. 1987 Scaling of the bursting frequency in turbulent boundary layers at low Reynolds numbers. Phys. Fluids. 30, 3326–3328.Google Scholar
Kline, S. J., Reynolds, W. C., Schraub, F. A. & Runstadleb, P. W. 1967 The structure of turbulent boundary layers. J. Fluid Mech.30, 741–773.Google Scholar
Kreplin, H. P. & Eckelmann, H. 1979 Propagation of perturbations in the viscous sublayer and adjacent wall region. J. Fluid Mech. 95, 305–322.Google Scholar
Luv, S. S. & Willmarth, W. W. 1973 Measurements of the structure of the Reynolds stress in a turbulent boundary layer. J. Fluid. Mech. 60, 481–511.Google Scholar
Luchik, T. S. & Tiederman, W. G. 1987 Timescale and structure of ejections and bursts in turbulent channel flows. J. Fluid Mech. 174, 529–552.Google Scholar
Nagib, H. M. & Guezennec, Y. G. 1986 On the structure of turbulent boundary layers. Proc. 10th Symp. on Turbulence, Rolla Missouri.
Nagib, H. M., Wark, C. E. & Guezennec, Y. G. 1987 Documentation of turbulence producing structures in regular and manipulated turbulent boundary layers. In Proc. the IUTAM Symp. on Turbulence Management and Relaminarisation. Bangalore, India, Paper. 1. Springer.
Naguib, A. M. 1989 Reynolds number effect on the scales and symmetry of coherent structures in a turbulent boundary layer. M.S. thesis, Illinois Institute of Technology.
Perry, A. E. & Chong, M. S. 1982 On the mechanisms of wall turbulence. J. Fluid Mech. 119, 173–217.Google Scholar
Perry, A. E., Henbest, S. & Chong, M. S. 1986 A theoretical and experimental study of wall turbulence. J. Fluid Mech. 165, 163–199.Google Scholar
Plesniak, M. W. 1985 Optimized manipulation of turbulent boundary layers aimed at net drag reduction. M.S. thesis, Illinois Institute of Technology.
Rao, K. N., Narasimha, R. & Narayanan, M. A. 1971 The ‘bursting’ phenomenon in a turbulent boundary layer. J. Fluid Mech. 48, 339–352.Google Scholar
Raupach, M. R. 1981 Conditional statistics of Reynolds stress in rough-wall and smooth-wall turbulent boundary layers. J. Fluid Mech. 108, 363–382.Google Scholar
Robinson, S. K., Kline, S. J. & Spalart, P. R. 1988 Quasi-coherent structures in the turbulent boundary layer: Part II. Verification and new information from a numerically simulated flat-plate layer. In Proc. Zoran Zaric Memorial Seminar on Near-Wall Turbulence, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia,. May. 1988.
Shah, D. A. & Antonia, R. A. 1989 Scaling of the ‘bursting’ period in turbulent boundary layer and duct flows. Phys. Fluids. A 1, 318–325.Google Scholar
Smith, C. R. & Metzler, S. P. 1983 The characteristics of low-speed streaks in the near wall region of a turbulent boundary layer. J. Fluid Mech. 129, 27–46.Google Scholar
Smith, C. R. & Schwartz, S. P. 1983 Observation of streamwise rotation in the near-wall region of a turbulent boundary layer. Phys. Fluids. 26, 641–652.Google Scholar
Sreenivasan, K. R. 1987 A unified view of the origin and morphology of the turbulent boundary layer structure. In Proc. IUTAM Symp. on Turbulence Management and Relaminarisation, Bangalore, India. Springer.
Wallace, J. M., Eckelmann, H. & Bbodkey, R. S. 1972 The wall region in turbulent shear flow. J. Fluid Mech.54, 39–48.Google Scholar
Wark, C. E. 1988 Experimental investigation of coherent structures in turbulent boundary layers. Ph.D. thesis, Illinois Institute of Technology.
Wark, C. E. & Nagib, H. M. 1988 Scaling of frequency of Reynolds-stress producing events in regular and manipulated boundary layers. In Proc. Zoran Zaric Memorial Seminar on Near-Wall Turbulence, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia.
Wark, C. E. & Nagib, H. M. 1989 Relation between outer structures and wall-layer events in boundary layers with and without manipulation. In Proc. 2nd IUTAM Symp. on Structure of Turbulence and Drag Reduction, Zurich, Switzerland, July 1989.
Wark, C. E., Robinson, S. K., Naguib, A. M. & Spalart, P. R. 1991 Scaling of spanwise length scales in a turbulent boundary layer. 29th Aerospace Science Meeting, Reno, Nevada.
Willmarth, W. W. & Sharma, L. K. 1984 Study of turbulent structure with hot wires smaller than the viscous length. J. Fluid Mech. 142, 121–149.Google Scholar