Two-dimensional numerical simulations of wall-bounded turbulent pulsating flow driven by a sinusoidal velocity through a circular smooth tube are carried out. These computations for a Womersley number a ranged from 0.7 to 2069 and a dimensionless frequency ??+ ranged from 1.2x10-5 to 33.5. The aim of the present study is to calculate the phase lag inside the unsteady turbulent boundary layer and across the tube. The phase lag of the velocity and shear stress with respect to the pressure gradient is deduced. Also, the instantaneous logarithmic layer and the turbulent parameters are analyzed. It is found that capturing the phase lag near the wall depends on resolving the Stokes layer thickness (??s). At ultra-high frequencies, the centerline velocity was delayed from the pressure gradient and wall shear stress by 45o and 90o respectively. Consequently, the velocity and shear stress lagged behind the pressure gradient by 90o and 280o at the core of the tube, respectively, and by 45o at the wall. Thus, the trend of the radial phase lag increases toward the tube's center for ??+ > 0.06, which contrasts with that at low frequencies. When a reversed flow is caused by increasing the amplitude of the imposed oscillations, the phase lag is not affected noticeably by this increment. The radial phase lag is kept constant outside the oscillatory boundary layer at high frequencies because the radial gradient of the axial velocity has vanished.

The present paper reports a numerical study of fully developed turbulent flow over a flat plate with a step change from a smooth to a rough surface. The Reynolds number based on momentum thickness for the smooth flow was Re θ = 5950 . The focus of the study was to investigate the capability of the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations to predict the internal boundary layer (IBL) created by the flow configuration. The numerical solution used a two-layer k − ε model to implement the effects of surface roughness on the turbulence and mean flow fields via the use of a hydrodynamic roughness length y 0 . The prediction for the mean velocity field revealed a development zone immediately downstream of the step in which the mean velocity profile included a lower region affected by the surface roughness below and an upper region with the characteristics of the smooth-wall boundary layer above. In this zone, both the turbulence kinetic energy and Reynolds shear stress profiles were characterized by a significant reduction in magnitude in the outer region of the flow that is unaffected by the rough surface. The turbulence kinetic energy profile was used to estimate the thickness of the IBL, and the resulting growth rate closely matched the experimental results. As such, the IBL is a promising test case for assessing the ability of RANS models to predict the discrete roughness configurations often encountered in industrial and environmental applications.

A feedback controlled thermal wall plate designed to investigate thermal boundary layer flows is described and validated. The unique capabilities of the design are the ability to modify the thermal boundary conditions in a variety of ways or to hold the wall-temperature fixed even when the flow above the wall is unsteady and strongly three-dimensional. These capabilities allow for the generation and study of thermal transport in nonequilibrium boundary layer flows driven by different perturbations and of varying complexity. The thermal wall plate and the experimental facility in which the thermal wall plate is installed are first described. The wall-plate is then validated in a zero-pressure-gradient (ZPG) boundary layer flow for conditions of a uniform wall temperature and a temperature step. It is then shown that the wall temperature can be held constant even when a hemisphere body is placed on the wall that produces large localized variations in the convective heat transfer coefficient. Last, since the thermal wall plate is intended to support the study of thermal transport in a variety of nonequilibrium boundary layer flow, several possible experimental configurations are presented and described.

The ground effect on the aerodynamics and tip vortex flow of a rectangular wing is investigated experimentally at Re = 2.71 × 10 5 . The results show that there is a large lift increase with reducing ground distance. By contrast, only a small drag increase is observed in ground effect except in close ground proximity for which a great drag increase appears. The tip vortex also moves further outboard and upward with reducing ground distance. Near the ground, there is the presence of a corotating ground vortex (produced by the rolling up of the boundary layer developed on the ground surface), leading to an increased vortex strength. In extreme ground proximity, a counterrotating secondary vortex (SV) (induced by the crossflow of the tip vortex), relative to the tip vortex, appears which causes a reduced vortex strength and a lowered lift-induced drag, as well as a vortex rebound. The impact of ground effect on the vortex flow properties is also discussed. The lift-induced drag, computed based on the crossflow measurements via the Maskell wake integral method, in ground effect is also compared against the inviscid-flow predictions and wind tunnel total drag force measurements.

Grid fins are unconventional control surfaces consisting of an outer frame supporting an inner grid of intersecting planar surfaces. Although afflicted with higher drag, these have been credited for their enhanced lifting characteristics at high angles of attack and high Mach numbers, alongside reduced hinge moments accounting for the recent upsurge in their usage on numerous aerospace applications. Present investigations carry out elaborate flow field visualization and characterization underlining the rudimentary physics through a sequence of subsonic numerical simulations performed at different angles of attack and different gap (between the members) to chord ratios on a simplified grid fin variant called cascade fin. The study makes use of a new nondimensionalization technique called cumulative nondimensionalization to decipher the effect of cascading on individual members of the fin. Hence, after a comprehensive examination of the aerodynamic coefficients, pressure coefficient distribution, pressure gradient, velocity gradient, boundary layer velocity profile, and flow field visualization, the study elucidates physics associated with hastened stall angle, augmented lift-drag, and bounded efficiency accretion for gap increment.

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is performed to investigate the modes of shedding of the wake of a wall-mounted finite-length square cylinder with an aspect ratio (AR) of 7 for six different boundary layer thicknesses (0.0–0.30) at a Reynolds number of 250. For all the cases of wall boundary layer considered in this study, two modes of shedding, namely, anti-symmetric and symmetric modes of shedding, were found to coexist in the cylinder wake with symmetric one occurring intermittently for smaller time duration. The phase-averaged flow field revealed that the symmetric modes of shedding occur only during instances when the near wake experiences the maximum strength of upwash/downwash flow. The boundary layer thickness seems to have a significant effect on the area of dominance of both downwash and upwash flow in instantaneous and time-averaged flow field. It is observed that the near-wake topology and the total drag force acting on the cylinder are significantly affected by the bottom-wall boundary layer thickness. The overall drag coefficient is found to decrease with thickening of the wall boundary layer thickness.

When a fluid enters a rotating pipe, a swirl boundary layer with thickness of δ ̃ S appears at the wall and interacts with the axial momentum boundary layer with thickness of δ ̃ . The swirl is produced by the wall shear stress and not due to kinematic reasons as by a turbomachine. In the center of the pipe, the fluid is swirl-free and is accelerated due to axial boundary layer growth. Below a critical flow number φ < φc, there is flow separation, known in the turbomachinery context as part load recirculation. The previous work analyzes the flow at the inlet of a coaxial rotating circular pipe ( R ̃ = R ̃ 0 ). For a systematic approach to a turbomachine, the influence of the turbine's and pump's function, schematically fulfilled by a diffuser and a nozzle, on the evolution of the swirl and flow separation is to analyze. The radius of the rotating pipe depends linearly on the axial coordinate, yielding a rotating circular diffuser or nozzle. The swirl evolution depends on the Reynolds number, flow number, axial coordinate, and apex angle. The influence of the latter is the paper's main task. The circumferential velocity component is measured applying one-dimensional laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) to investigate the swirl evolution.

An experimental study has been conducted to investigate the effects of transitionally rough surface on the flat-plate boundary layer transition. Transitional boundary layers with three different flat plates (k s + = 0.07 ∼ 0.19, 2.71 ∼ 7.05, and 13.65 ∼ 41.09) have been measured with a single-sensor hot-wire probe. All of the measurements have been conducted under zero pressure gradient (ZPG) at the fixed Reynolds number (Re L ) and freestream turbulence intensity (Tu) of 3.05 × 10 6 and 0.2%. Transitionally, rough surface does not affect the sigmoidal distribution of turbulence intermittency model; but induces earlier transition onset and shortens the transition length. For all surfaces, streamwise turbulence intensity profiles with similar values of turbulence intermittency are similar for the transition length less than 60%. Therefore, mean velocity profiles with the similar values of turbulence intermittency are similar regardless of surface conditions. However, downstream of 60% of the transition length, mean velocity defect increases as the surface roughness increases. Enhanced diffusion of turbulent kinetic energy from the near wall (y/ δ < 0.1) to the outer part (y/ δ ≈ 0.4) of the boundary layer due to the surface roughness is responsible for the increased momentum deficit.

When an axial flow enters a rotating diffuser or nozzle, a swirl boundary layer appears at the wall and interacts with the axial boundary layer. Below a critical flow number φ c , there is a flow separation, known in the turbomachinery context as part load recirculation. This paper extends the previous work for a cylindrical coaxial rotating pipe still considering the influence of the centrifugal force by varying the pipe's radius, yielding a coaxial rotating circular diffuser or nozzle. The integral method of boundary layer theory is used to describe the flow at the inlet of a rotating circular diffuser or nozzle, obtaining a generalized von Kármán momentum equation. This work conducts experiments to validate the analytical results and shows the influence of Reynolds number, flow number, apex angle, and surface roughness on the boundary layers evolution. By doing so, a critical flow number for incipient flow separation is analytically derived, resulting in a stability map for part load recirculation depending on Reynolds number and apex angle. Hereby, positive apex angles (diffuser) and negative apex angles (nozzle) are considered.

For vibro-acoustic applications, a turbulent wall pressure (TWP) fluctuations model was derived. The model is based on the resolution of Poisson's equation. The pressure is characterized in time and space through its spectrum in the frequency wave-number domain. The developed model follows trends commonly observed using Corcos model in a large frequency range but also shows new behaviors for low and high frequencies. The radiated noise due to TWP fluctuations is then computed in accordance with the form of the TWP spectrum. A specific computational methodology is proposed to perform the calculation without introducing limiting hypothesis on the radiated impedance.

This study investigates experimentally the effects of upstream flow conditions and Reynolds number on a developing duct flow. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and hot-wire (HW) anemometry are employed to explore the flow dynamics in a rectangular duct with an aspect ratio of 2 and a length of 40 hydraulic diameters (D h ). Experiments are employed for two Reynolds numbers, R e D h = 17,750 and 35,500 where the inlet turbulence intensity is controlled using different turbulence grids. The results show that the inlet turbulence intensity and Reynolds number have a substantial effect on the flow evolution, the onset of shear layer interaction zone, and the subsequent relaxation to the fully developed flow. The main effect is linked to the development of the boundary layer, as the turbulence intensity decays rapidly in the core flow. The detailed analysis indicates that transition to turbulence advances upstream as the inlet turbulence intensity is increased, leading to an earlier onset of shear layer interaction and the decrease in entrance length. A similar upstream advancement of laminar-to-turbulent transition is induced as the Reynolds number is increased. However, a delay in the onset of shear layer interaction regime is observed at higher Reynolds number due to lower overall boundary layer growth rate. Thus, the focus of the analysis characterization of the boundary layer development and quantification of the associated changes in the duct flow development.

This paper discusses an unsteady separated stagnation-point flow of a viscous fluid over a flat plate covering the complete range of the unsteadiness parameter β in combination with the flow strength parameter a (>0). Here, β varies from zero, Hiemenz's steady stagnation-point flow, to large β -limit, for which the governing boundary layer equation reduces to an approximate one in which the convective inertial effects are negligible. An important finding of this study is that the governing boundary layer equation conceives an analytic solution for the specific relation β = 2a. It is found that for a given value of β ( ≥ 0 ) the present flow problem always provides a unique attached flow solution (AFS), whereas for a negative value of β the self-similar boundary layer solution may or may not exist that depends completely on the values of a and β (<0). If the solution exists, it may either be unique or dual or multiple in nature. According to the characteristic features of these solutions, they have been categorized into two classes—one which is AFS and the other is reverse flow solution (RFS). Another interesting finding of this analysis is the asymptotic solution which is more practical than the numerical solutions for large values of β (>0) depending upon the values of a . A novel result which arises from the pressure distribution is that for a positive value of β the pressure is nonmonotonic along the stagnation-point streamline as there is a pressure minimum which moves toward the stagnation-point with an increasing value of β > 0.

This paper investigates the ability of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to accurately predict the turbulent flow separating from a three-dimensional (3D) axisymmetric hill using a recently developed four-equation eddy-viscosity model (EVM). The four-equation model, denoted as k–k L –ω–v 2 , was developed to demonstrate physically accurate responses to flow transition, streamline curvature, and system rotation effects. The model was previously tested on several two-dimensional cases with results showing improvement in predictions when compared to other popularly available EVMs. In this paper, we present a more complex 3D application of the model. The test case is turbulent boundary layer flow with thickness δ over a hill of height 2δ mounted in an enclosed channel. The flow Reynolds number based on the hill height (Re H ) is 1.3 × 10 5 . For validation purposes, CFD simulation results obtained using the k–k L –ω–v 2 model are compared with two other Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) models (fully turbulent shear stress transport k–ω and transition-sensitive k–k L –ω) and with experimental data. Results obtained from the simulations in terms of mean flow statistics, pressure distribution, and turbulence characteristics are presented and discussed in detail. The results indicate that both the complex physics of flow transition and streamline curvature should be taken into account to significantly improve RANS-based CFD predictions for applications involving blunt or curved bodies in a low Re turbulent regime.

Efficacy of several large-scale flow parameters as transition onset markers are evaluated using direct numerical simulation (DNS) of boundary layer bypass transition. Preliminary results identify parameters ( k 2 D / ν ) and u ′ / U ∞ to be a potentially reliable transition onset marker, and their critical values show less than 15% variation in the range of Re and turbulence intensity (TI). These parameters can be implemented into general-purpose physics-based Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) models for engineering applications.

An efficient large-eddy simulation (LES) approach is investigated for laminar-to-turbulent transition in boundary layers. This approach incorporates the boundary-layer stability theory. Primary instability and subharmonic perturbations determined by the boundary-layer stability theory are assigned as forcing at the inlet of the LES computational domain. This LES approach reproduces the spatial development of instabilities in the boundary layer, as observed in wind tunnel experiments. Detailed linear growth and nonlinear interactions that lead to the H-type breakdown are well captured and compared well to previous direct numerical simulation (DNS). Requirements in the spatial resolution in the transition region are investigated with connections to the resolution in turbulent boundary layers. It is shown that the subgrid model used in this study is apparently dormant in the overall transitional region, allowing the right level of the growth of small-amplitude instabilities and their nonlinear interactions. The subgrid model becomes active near the end of the transition where the length scales of high-order instabilities become smaller in size compared to the given grid resolution. Current results demonstrate the benefit of the boundary-layer forcing method for the computational cost reduction.

Commercial water tunnels typically generate a momentum thickness based Reynolds number (Re θ ) ∼1000, which is slightly above the laminar to turbulent transition. The current work compiles the literature on the design of high-Reynolds number facilities and uses it to design a high-Reynolds number recirculating water tunnel that spans the range between commercial water tunnels and the largest in the world. The final design has a 1.1 m long test-section with a 152 mm square cross section that can reach speed of 10 m/s, which corresponds to R e θ = 15,000 . Flow conditioning via a tandem configuration of honeycombs and settling-chambers combined with an 8.5:1 area contraction resulted in an average test-section inlet turbulence level <0.3% and negligible mean shear in the test-section core. The developing boundary layer on the test-section walls conform to a canonical zero-pressure-gradient (ZPG) flat-plate turbulent boundary layer (TBL) with the outer variable scaled profile matching a 1/7th power-law fit, inner variable scaled velocity profiles matching the log-law and a shape factor of 1.3.

Flow in turbomachines is generally highly turbulent. Nonetheless, boundary layers may exhibit laminar-to-turbulent transition, and relaminarization of the turbulent flow may also occur. The state of flow of the boundary layer is important since it influences transport phenomena like skin friction and heat transfer. In this paper, relaminarization in accelerated flat-plate boundary-layer flows is experimentally investigated, measuring flow velocities with laser Doppler anemometry (LDA). Besides the mean values, statistical properties of the velocity fluctuations are discussed in order to understand the processes in relaminarization. It is shown that strong acceleration leads to a suppression of turbulence production. The velocity fluctuations in the accelerated boundary layer flow “freeze,” while the mean velocity increases, thus reducing the turbulence intensity. This leads to a laminar-like velocity profile close to the wall, resulting in a decrease of the local skin friction coefficient. Downstream from the section with enforced relaminarization, a rapid retransition to turbulent flow is observed. The findings of this work also describe the mechanism of retransition.

The shear layer development for a NACA 0025 airfoil at a low Reynolds number was investigated experimentally and numerically using large eddy simulation (LES). Two angles of attack (AOAs) were considered: 5 deg and 12 deg. Experiments and numerics confirm that two flow regimes are present. The first regime, present for an angle-of-attack of 5 deg, exhibits boundary layer reattachment with formation of a laminar separation bubble. The second regime consists of boundary layer separation without reattachment. Linear stability analysis (LSA) of mean velocity profiles is shown to provide adequate agreement between measured and computed growth rates. The stability equations exhibit significant sensitivity to variations in the base flow. This highlights that caution must be applied when experimental or computational uncertainties are present, particularly when performing comparisons. LSA suggests that the first regime is characterized by high frequency instabilities with low spatial growth, whereas the second regime experiences low frequency instabilities with more rapid growth. Spectral analysis confirms the dominance of a central frequency in the laminar separation region of the shear layer, and the importance of nonlinear interactions with harmonics in the transition process.

High-speed flows with shock waves impinging on turbulent boundary layers pose severe challenge to current computational methods and models. Specifically, the peak wall heat flux is grossly overpredicted by Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations using conventional turbulence models. This is because of the constant Prandtl number assumption, which fails in the presence of strong adverse pressure gradient (APG) of the shock waves. Experimental data suggest a reduction of the turbulent Prandtl number in boundary layers subjected to APG. We use a phenomenological approach to develop an algebraic model based on the available data and cast it in a form that can be used in high-speed flows with shock-induced flow separation. The shock-unsteadiness (SU) k– ω model is used as the baseline, since it gives good prediction of flow separation and the regions of APG. The new model gives marked improvement in the peak heat flux prediction near the reattachment point. The formulation is applicable to both attached and separated flows. Additionally, the simplicity of the formulation makes it easily implementable in existing numerical codes.

Present investigation deals with the interaction of an incident oblique shock wave on a turbulent boundary layer over a wavy surface. The oblique shock wave was generated by an 8 deg wedge in a freestream Mach number of 2.0. Three-dimensional (3D) Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations with k–ω shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model were used for numerical computation. The computed results are in good agreement with the experimental measurement and direct numerical simulation (DNS) data in case of the interaction of an oblique shock with plain flat plate. To identify the effect of surface waviness on shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interaction (SWBLI), a section of the flat plate was replaced by a wavy surface. Computations have been conducted for different magnitudes of wavy amplitude. Further, the wavelength of the wavy surface has been varied. Results showed that the presence of wavy surface induces supplementary shock and expansion waves in the flow field, which are referred as topographic waves. This supplementary system of waves interacts with the counterpart of intrinsic SWBLI in a complex manner. Flow structure, separation behavior, and aerodynamic characteristics are studied. It is revealed that the amplitude is dominant than the wavelength of waviness in case of SWBLI on a wavy surface.