Contributed by the Fluids Engineering Division of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. Manuscript received by the Fluids Engineering Division February 17, 2000; revised manuscript received May 10, 2001. Associate Editor: J. Katz.
In near-wall turbulence research, accurate determination of the wall shear stress, (or skin friction coefficient ) is of critical importance due to its practical relevance and also because it determines the friction velocity used by most boundary layer scaling laws. A number of techniques are available to determine the wall shear stress in turbulent boundary layers. If sufficient data are obtained in the linear viscous sublayer the wall shear stress can be determined from the velocity gradient at the wall. However, it is often difficult to obtain adequate data within the linear sublayer in most experiments, especially if the Reynolds number is high...
