Early development of artificially initiated turbulent spots

Wang, Y. X.; Choi, K.-S.; Gaster, M.; Atkin, C.; Borodulin, V.; Kachanov, Y.

Abstract

An experimental investigation was carried out in a low-turbulence wind tunnel to study the early development of artificially initiated turbulent spots in a laminar boundary layer over a flat plate. Their reproducibility allowed us to observe fine structural details that were not seen before. Initial velocity disturbances quickly developed into hairpin-like structures that multiplied downstream, increasing in width, length and height of incipient turbulent spots. Only those disturbances that are greater than a threshold value have developed to turbulent spots while others decayed. The rate of development was also affected by the duration of initial distrubances. We found that the behaviour of turbulence generation within a turbulent spot was similar to the burst events in the turbulent boundary layer, where the ejection events were followed by the sweep events.

Citation

Wang, Y. X., Choi, K.-S., Gaster, M., Atkin, C., Borodulin, V., & Kachanov, Y. (2021). Early development of artificially initiated turbulent spots. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 916, Article A1. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.152

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 11, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Apr 6, 2021
• Publication Date: Jun 10, 2021
• Deposit Date: Feb 12, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 6, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Fluid Mechanics
• Print ISSN: 0022-1120
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-7645
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 916
• Article Number: A1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.152
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5318027
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-fluid-mechanics/article/early-development-of-artificially-initiated-turbulent-spots/ED2E899507663FAB59DE49D476BB8409