The Structure of Forward Facing Step Flows in Adverse Pressure Gradient

This paper reports an investigation of the effects of adverse pressure gradient on turbulent flows over forward facing step. Three adverse pressure gradients were created for this study using diverging channels. A particle image velocimetry technique was used to conduct measurements in the streamwise-wall-normal (x-y) planes at the mid-plane of test section at several locations downstream to 68 step heights. A Reynolds number of Re_h = 4800 and δ/h = 4.7 were employed, where h is the mean step height and δ is the approach boundary layer thickness. The results include the mean flow and turbulence quantities as well as proper orthogonal decomposition analysis. The mean reattachment length obtained indicates that the adverse pressure gradient created in this study does not have significant effects on the reattachment length. The triple velocity correlations imply that there is negative transport of turbulence kinetic energy close to the wall and positive transport away from the wall. In addition to the physical insight, the high quality data reported are useful for assessing the ability of turbulence models to reproduce the behaviour of complex flows.