On the Spreading Angle of Turbulent Spots in Non-Isothermal Boundary Layers With Favourable Pressure Gradients

Author(s):  
S. Zhong ◽  
T. P. Chong ◽  
H. P. Hodson

Turbulent spots created artificially in a flat plate boundary layer were visualized using both shear-sensitive and temperature-sensitive liquid crystals for the first time. The experiments were carried out at three different levels of favourable pressure gradients. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the spreading angles of the turbulent spots indicated by their associated surface shear stresses and heat transfer characteristics and hence obtain further insight about the difference in the behaviour of transitional momentum and thermal boundary layers when a streamwise pressure gradient is present. It was shown that under a zero pressure gradient the spreading angles indicated by the two types of liquid crystals are the same, but the difference increases as the level of favourable pressure gradient increases. The result from the present study could have an important implication for the transition modelling of thermal boundary layers over gas turbine blades. Further investigations are to be carried out.

Author(s):  
S. Zhong ◽  
T. P. Chong ◽  
H. P. Hodson

Turbulent wedges induced by a 3D surface roughness placed in a laminar boundary layer over a flat plate were visualised for the first time using both shear-sensitive and temperature-sensitive liquid crystals. The experiments were carried out at three different levels of favourable pressure gradients. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the spreading angles of the turbulent wedges indicated by their associated surface shear stresses and heat transfer characteristics and hence obtain further insight about the difference in the behaviour of transitional momentum and thermal boundary layers when a streamwise pressure gradient exists. It was shown that under a zero pressure gradient the spreading angles indicated by the two types of liquid crystals are the same, but the difference increases as the level of favourable pressure gradient increases. The result from the present study could have an important implication to the transition modelling of thermal boundary layers over gas turbine blades.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Zhong ◽  
T. P. Chong ◽  
H. P. Hodson

Turbulent wedges induced by a three-dimensional surface roughness placed in a laminar boundary layer over a flat plate were visualized for the first time using both shear-sensitive and temperature-sensitive liquid crystals. The experiments were carried out at zero pressure gradient and two different levels of favorable pressure gradients. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the spreading angles of turbulent wedges indicated by their associated surface shear stresses and heat transfer characteristics and hence obtain further insight about the difference in the behavior of transitional momentum and thermal boundary layers when a streamwise pressure gradient exists. It was found that under a zero pressure gradient the spreading angles indicated by the two types of liquid crystals are the same, but the difference increases as the level of favorable pressure gradient increases with the angle indicated by temperature-sensitive liquid crystals being smaller. The results from the present study suggest that the spanwise growth of a turbulent region is smaller in a thermal boundary layer than in its momentum counterpart and this seems to be responsible for the inconsistency in transition zone length indicated by the distribution of heat transfer rate and boundary layer shape factor reported in the literature. This finding would have an important implication to the transition modeling of thermal boundary layers over gas turbine blades.


Author(s):  
T. P. Chong ◽  
S. Zhong

This paper represents the results from an experimental investigation of the flow physics behind the difference in the transition zone length indicated by the momentum boundary layer and thermal boundary layer parameters observed on the suction surfaces of gas turbine blades. The experiments were carried out on turbulent spots created artificially in an otherwise laminar boundary layer developing over a heated flat plate in a zero pressure gradient and a favourable pressure gradient. A specially designed miniature triple wire probe was used to measure the streamwise velocity U, transverse velocity component V and temperature T simultaneously during the passage of the spots. In this paper, the general characteristics of the ensemble-averaged velocity and temperature perturbations, rms fluctuations and the second moment turbulent quantities are discussed and the influence of favourable pressure gradient on these parameters is examined. When a favourable pressure gradient is present, unlike in the velocity boundary layer where significant velocity fluctuations (or Reynolds shear stress) occur both on the plane of symmetry and the spanwise periphery, high temperature fluctuations (or turbulent heat fluxes) are confined in the plane of symmetry. The difference in the levels of velocity/temperature fluctuations at these two locations gives an indication of the effectiveness of momentum/heat transfer across the span of the spots. The results of this study show that the heat transfer within a spot is inhibited more than that of the momentum transfer at the presence of a favourable pressure gradient. This phenomenon is expected to slow down the spanwise growth of turbulent spots in the transitional thermal boundary layer, leading to a longer transitional zone length indicated by the heat transfer parameters as reported in the literature.


Author(s):  
Frank J. Aldrich

A physics-based approach is employed and a new prediction tool is developed to predict the wavevector-frequency spectrum of the turbulent boundary layer wall pressure fluctuations for subsonic airfoils under the influence of adverse pressure gradients. The prediction tool uses an explicit relationship developed by D. M. Chase, which is based on a fit to zero pressure gradient data. The tool takes into account the boundary layer edge velocity distribution and geometry of the airfoil, including the blade chord and thickness. Comparison to experimental adverse pressure gradient data shows a need for an update to the modeling constants of the Chase model. To optimize the correlation between the predicted turbulent boundary layer wall pressure spectrum and the experimental data, an optimization code (iSIGHT) is employed. This optimization module is used to minimize the absolute value of the difference (in dB) between the predicted values and those measured across the analysis frequency range. An optimized set of modeling constants is derived that provides reasonable agreement with the measurements.


2019 ◽  
Vol 880 ◽  
pp. 239-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Wenzel ◽  
Tobias Gibis ◽  
Markus Kloker ◽  
Ulrich Rist

A direct numerical simulation study of self-similar compressible flat-plate turbulent boundary layers (TBLs) with pressure gradients (PGs) has been performed for inflow Mach numbers of 0.5 and 2.0. All cases are computed with smooth PGs for both favourable and adverse PG distributions (FPG, APG) and thus are akin to experiments using a reflected-wave set-up. The equilibrium character allows for a systematic comparison between sub- and supersonic cases, enabling the isolation of pure PG effects from Mach-number effects and thus an investigation of the validity of common compressibility transformations for compressible PG TBLs. It turned out that the kinematic Rotta–Clauser parameter $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}_{K}$ calculated using the incompressible form of the boundary-layer displacement thickness as length scale is the appropriate similarity parameter to compare both sub- and supersonic cases. Whereas the subsonic APG cases show trends known from incompressible flow, the interpretation of the supersonic PG cases is intricate. Both sub- and supersonic regions exist in the boundary layer, which counteract in their spatial evolution. The boundary-layer thickness $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}_{99}$ and the skin-friction coefficient $c_{f}$, for instance, are therefore in a comparable range for all compressible APG cases. The evaluation of local non-dimensionalized total and turbulent shear stresses shows an almost identical behaviour for both sub- and supersonic cases characterized by similar $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}_{K}$, which indicates the (approximate) validity of Morkovin’s scaling/hypothesis also for compressible PG TBLs. Likewise, the local non-dimensionalized distributions of the mean-flow pressure and the pressure fluctuations are virtually invariant to the local Mach number for same $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}_{K}$-cases. In the inner layer, the van Driest transformation collapses compressible mean-flow data of the streamwise velocity component well into their nearly incompressible counterparts with the same $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}_{K}$. However, noticeable differences can be observed in the wake region of the velocity profiles, depending on the strength of the PG. For both sub- and supersonic cases the recovery factor was found to be significantly decreased by APGs and increased by FPGs, but also to remain virtually constant in regions of approximated equilibrium.


2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. Chong ◽  
S. Zhong

This paper represents the results from an experimental investigation of the flow physics behind the difference in the transition zone length indicated by the momentum boundary layer and thermal boundary layer parameters observed on the suction surfaces of gas turbine blades. The experiments were carried out on turbulent spots created artificially in an otherwise laminar boundary layer developing over a heated flat plate in a zero pressure gradient and a favorable pressure gradient. A specially designed miniature triple wire probe was used to measure the streamwise velocity component U, transverse velocity component V and temperature T simultaneously during the passage of the spots. In this paper, the general characteristics of the ensemble-averaged velocity and temperature perturbations, rms fluctuations, and the second moment turbulent quantities are discussed and the influence of favorable pressure gradient on these parameters is examined. When a favorable pressure gradient is present, unlike in the velocity boundary layer where significant velocity fluctuations and Reynolds shear stress occur both on the plane of symmetry and the spanwise periphery, high temperature fluctuations (and turbulent heat fluxes) are confined in the plane of symmetry. The difference in the levels of velocity/temperature fluctuations at these two locations gives an indication of the effectiveness of momentum/heat transfer across the span of the spots. The results of this study indicate that the heat transfer within a spot is inhibited more than that of the momentum transfer at the presence of a favorable pressure gradient. This phenomenon is expected to slow down the development of a transitional thermal boundary layer, leading to a longer transitional zone length indicated by the heat transfer parameters as reported in the literature.


Author(s):  
H. Pfeil ◽  
R. Herbst ◽  
T. Schröder

The boundary layer transition under instationary afflux conditions as present in the stages of turbomachines is investigated. A model for the transition process is introduced by means of time-space distributions of the turbulent spots during transition and schematic drawings of the instantaneous boundary layer thicknesses. To confirm this model, measurements of the transition with zero and favorable pressure gradient are performed.


1991 ◽  
Vol 44 (12) ◽  
pp. 517-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald C. Lauchle

Transitional boundary layers exist on surfaces and bodies operating in viscous fluids at speeds such that the critical Reynolds number based on the distance from the leading edge is exceeded. The transition region is composed of a simultaneous mixture of both laminar and turbulent regimes occurring randomly in space and time. The turbulent regimes are known as turbulent spots, they grow rapidly with downstream distance, and they ultimately coalesce to form the beginning of fully-developed turbulent boundary-layer flow. It has been long suspected that such a region of unsteadiness may give rise to local pressure fluctuations and radiated sound that are different from those created by the fully-developed turbulent boundary layer at equivalent Reynolds number. This article reviews the available literature on this subject. The emphasis of this literature is on natural and artificially created transitional boundary layers under mostly incompressible conditions; hence, the word hydroacoustics in the title. The topics covered include the dynamics and local wall pressure fluctuations due to the passage of turbulent spots created in a deterministic way, the pressure fluctuations under transitioning boundary layers where the formation and location of spots are random, and the acoustic radiation from transition and its pre-cursor, the Tollmien-Schlichting waves. The majority of this review is for zero-pressure gradient flat plate flows, but the limited literature on axisymmetric body and plate flows with pressure gradient is included.


2010 ◽  
Vol 649 ◽  
pp. 233-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
SHIVSAI AJIT DIXIT ◽  
O. N. RAMESH

Aspects of large-scale organized structures in sink flow turbulent and reverse-transitional boundary layers are studied experimentally using hot-wire anemometry. Each of the present sink flow boundary layers is in a state of ‘perfect equilibrium’ or ‘exact self-preservation’ in the sense of Townsend (The Structure of Turbulent Shear Flow, 1st and 2nd edns, 1956, 1976, Cambridge University Press) and Rotta (Progr. Aeronaut. Sci., vol. 2, 1962, pp. 1–220) and conforms to the notion of ‘pure wall-flow’ (Coles,J. Aerosp. Sci., vol. 24, 1957, pp. 495–506), at least for the turbulent cases. It is found that the characteristic inclination angle of the structure undergoes a systematic decrease with the increase in strength of the streamwise favourable pressure gradient. Detectable wall-normal extent of the structure is found to be typically half of the boundary layer thickness. Streamwise extent of the structure shows marked increase as the favourable pressure gradient is made progressively severe. Proposals for the typical eddy forms in sink flow turbulent and reverse-transitional flows are presented, and the possibility of structural self-organization (i.e. individual hairpin vortices forming streamwise coherent hairpin packets) in these flows is also discussed. It is further indicated that these structural ideas may be used to explain, from a structural viewpoint, the phenomenon ofsoftrelaminarization or reverse transition of turbulent boundary layers when subjected to strong streamwise favourable pressure gradients. Taylor's ‘frozen turbulence’ hypothesis is experimentally shown to be valid for flows in the present study even though large streamwise accelerations are involved, the flow being even reverse transitional in some cases. Possible conditions, which are required to be satisfied for the safe use of Taylor's hypothesis in pressure-gradient-driven flows, are also outlined. Measured convection velocities are found to be fairly close to the local mean velocities (typically 90% or more) suggesting that the structure gets convected downstream almost along with the mean flow.


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