A Single Formula for the Complete Velocity Profile in a Turbulent Boundary Layer

1976 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 723-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. B. Dean

An expression for the wake deficit g(Π, y/δ) in a turbulent boundary layer is combined with a function f(U+) for the inner layer to yield a single formula for the complete velocity profile in the form y+ exp {Kg(Π, y/δ)} = f(U+). Close agreement is shown with data from boundary layers in a wide range of pressure gradients and beneath a turbulent free stream. The formula will be particularly useful for integral and differential calculation methods.

1966 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Rotta

A review is given of the recent development in turbulent boundary layers. At first, for the case of incompressible flow, the variation of the shape of velocity profile with the pressure gradient is discussed; also the temperature distribution and heat transfer in incompressible boundary layers are treated. Finally, problems of the turbulent boundary layer in compressible flow are considered.


Author(s):  
J. P. Gostelow ◽  
G. J. Walker

Boundary layer transition has been investigated experimentally under low, moderate and high free-stream turbulence levels and varying adverse pressure gradients. Under high turbulence levels and adverse pressure gradients a pronounced subtransition was present. A strong degree of similarity in intermittency distributions was observed, for all conditions, when the Narasimha procedure for determination of transition inception was used. Effects of free-stream turbulence on the velocity profile are particularly strong for the laminar boundary layer upstream of the transition region. This could reflect the influence of the turbulence on the shear stress distribution throughout the layer and this matter needs further attention. The velocity profiles in wall coordinates undershoot the turbulent wall layer asymptote near the wall over most of the transition region. The rapidity with which transition occurs under adverse pressure gradients produces strong lag effects on the velocity profile; the starting turbulent boundary layer velocity profile may depart significantly from local equilibrium conditions. The practice of deriving integral properties and skin friction for transitional boundary layers by a linear combination of laminar and turbulent values for equilibrium layers is inconsistent with the observed lag effects. The velocity profile responds sufficiently slowly to the perturbation imposed by transition that much of the anticipated drop in form factor will not have occurred prior to the completion of transition. This calls into question both experimental techniques which rely on measured form factor to characterize transition and boundary layer calculations which rely on local equilibrium assumptions in the vicinity of transition.


1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Gostelow ◽  
G. J. Walker

Boundary layer transition has been investigated experimentally under low, moderate, and high free-stream turbulence levels and varying adverse pressure gradients. Under high turbulence levels and adverse pressure gradients a pronounced subtransition was present. A strong degree of similarity in intermittency distributions was observed, for all conditions, when the Narasimha procedure for determination of transition inception was used. Effects of free-stream turbulence on the velocity profile are particularly strong for the laminar boundary layer upstream of the transition region. This could reflect the influence of the turbulence on the shear stress distribution throughout the layer and this matter needs further attention. The velocity profiles in wall coordinates undershoot the turbulent wall layer asymptote near the wall over most of the transition region. The rapidity with which transition occurs under adverse pressure gradients produces strong lag effects on the velocity profile; the starting turbulent boundary layer velocity profile may depart significantly from local equilibrium conditions. The practice of deriving integral properties and skin friction for transitional boundary layers by a linear combination of laminar and turbulent values for equilibrium layers is inconsistent with the observed lag effects. The velocity profile responds sufficiently slowly to the perturbation imposed by transition that much of the anticipated drop in form factor will not have occurred prior to the completion of transition. This calls into question both experimental techniques, which rely on measured form factor to characterize transition, and boundary layer calculations, which rely on local equilibrium assumptions in the vicinity of transition.


1969 ◽  
Vol 73 (698) ◽  
pp. 143-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. K. Bull

Although a numerical solution of the turbulent boundary-layer equations has been achieved by Mellor and Gibson for equilibrium layers, there are many occasions on which it is desirable to have closed-form expressions representing the velocity profile. Probably the best known and most widely used representation of both equilibrium and non-equilibrium layers is that of Coles. However, when velocity profiles are examined in detail it becomes apparent that considerable care is necessary in applying Coles's formulation, and it seems to be worthwhile to draw attention to some of the errors and inconsistencies which may arise if care is not exercised. This will be done mainly by the consideration of experimental data. In the work on constant pressure layers, emphasis tends to fall heavily on the author's own data previously reported in ref. 1, because the details of the measurements are readily available; other experimental work is introduced where the required values can be obtained easily from the published papers.


1958 ◽  
Vol 62 (567) ◽  
pp. 215-219
Author(s):  
T. J. Black

A New type of auxiliary equation is given for calculating the development of the form-parameter H in turbulent boundary layers with adverse pressure gradients. The chief advantage of this new method lies in the rapidity and ease of calculation which has been achieved, without apparent sacrifice of accuracy.Whereas the growth of momentum thickness in the turbulent boundary layer can now be rapidly calculated by methods involving only simple quadrature, the prediction of the form parameter development remains a laborious task, while the results obtained do not always appear to justify the complexity of the calculations.


1962 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Seban ◽  
L. H. Back

Velocity and temperature profiles are presented for the turbulent boundary layer downstream of a tangential injection slot for the further clarification of the film-cooling problem. The profiles refer primarily to an injection mass velocity of 0.36 times that of the free stream; these and other auxiliary results demonstrate a complex hydrodynamic and relatively simple thermal behavior in which the temperature profiles appear to be similar in all cases. By using this correspondence together with the approximation of a fully developed hydrodynamic layer in most of the downstream region, it is possible to rationalize the adiabatic wall temperatures that have been presented previously.


Author(s):  
Mark W. Johnson

Experimental data for laminar boundary layers developing below a turbulent free stream shows that the fluctuation velocities within the boundary layer increase in amplitude until some critical level is reached which initiates transition. In the near wall region, a simple model, containing a single empirical parameter which depends only on the turbulence level and length scale, is derived to predict the development of the velocity fluctuations in laminar boundary layers with favourable, zero or adverse pressure gradients. A simple bypass transition model which considers the streamline distortion in the near wall region brought about by the velocity fluctuations suggests that transition will commence when the local turbulence level reaches approximately 23%. This value is consistent with experimental findings. This critical local turbulence level is used to derive a bypass transition prediction formula which compares reasonably with start of transition experimental data for a range of pressure gradients (λθ = −0.01 to 0.01) and turbulence levels (Tu = 0.2% to 5%). Further improvement to the model is proposed through prediction of the boundary layer distortion, which occurs due to Reynolds stresses generated within the boundary layer at high free stream turbulence levels and also through inclusion of the effect of turbulent length scale as well as turbulence level.


1990 ◽  
Vol 221 ◽  
pp. 131-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Brereton ◽  
W. C. Reynolds ◽  
R. Jayaraman

In this paper, selected findings of a detailed experimental investigation are reported concerning the effects of forced free-stream unsteadiness on a turbulent boundary layer. The forced unsteadiness was sinusoidal and was superimposed locally on an otherwise-steady mainstream, beyond a turbulent boundary layer which had developed under constant-pressure conditions. Within the region over which free-stream unsteadiness was induced, the sinusoidal variation in pressure gradient was between extremes of zero and a positive value, with a positive average level. The local response of the boundary layer to these free-stream effects was studied through simultaneous measurements of the u- and v-components of the velocity fieldAlthough extensive studies of unsteady, turbulent, fully-developed pipe and channel flow have been carried out, the problem of a developing turbulent boundary layer and its response to forced free-stream unsteadiness has received comparatively little attention. The present study is intended to redress this imbalance and, when contrasted with other studies of unsteady turbulent boundary layers, is unique in that: (i) it features an appreciable amplitude of mainstream modulation at a large number of frequencies of forced unsteadiness, (ii) its measurements are both detailed and of high spatial resolution, so that the near-wall behaviour of the flow can be discerned, and (iii) it allows local modulation of the mainstream beyond a turbulent boundary layer which has developed under the well-known conditions of steady, two-dimensional, constant-pressure flowResults are reported which allow comparison of the behaviour of boundary layers under the same mean external conditions, but with different time dependence in their free-stream velocities. These time dependences correspond to: (i) steady flow, (ii) quasi-steadily varying flow, and (iii) unsteady flow at different frequencies of mainstream unsteadiness. Experimental results focus upon the time-averaged nature of the flow; they indicate that the mean structure of the turbulent boundary layer is sufficiently robust that the imposition of free-stream unsteadiness results only in minor differences relative to the mean character of the steady flow, even at frequencies for which the momentary condition of the flow departs substantially from its quasi-steady state. Mean levels of turbulence production are likewise unaffected by free-stream unsteadiness and temporal production of turbulence appears to result only from modulation of the motions which contribute to turbulence production as a time-averaged measure.


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