Abstract
We employ novel digital Fresnel reflection holography to capture the 3D flows within the viscous sublayer of a smooth-wall turbulent channel flow at Reτ=400. The measurements reveal unsteady and diverse flow patterns in the sublayer including nearly uniform high and low speed flows and strong small-scale (on the order of viscous wall units) spanwise meandering motions. The probability density functions (PDFs) of wall shear stresses show a clear discrepancy in high stress range with those from direct numerical simulation (DNS), which is attributed to the unresolved streamwise and spanwise motions by DNS. Moreover, the PDF of Lagrangian particle accelerations yields a stretched exponential shape like that in homogenous isotropic turbulence, indicating strong intermittency in the sublayer. We find a significant fraction of high accelerations is associated with the small-scale meandering motions. Our study helps explain the effect of sublayer-scale roughness on reducing drag and flow separation reported in the literature.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 100239 |
Journal | Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 2021 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Computational Mechanics
- Environmental Engineering
- Civil and Structural Engineering
- Biomedical Engineering
- Aerospace Engineering
- Ocean Engineering
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering