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Roughness receptivity and shielding in a flat plate boundary layer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2015

Matthew S. Kuester*
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 20461, USA
Edward B. White
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: mkuester@vt.edu

Abstract

Surface roughness can affect boundary layer transition by acting as a receptivity mechanism for transient growth. While experiments have investigated transient growth of steady disturbances generated by discrete roughness elements, very few have studied distributed surface roughness. Some work predicts a‘shielding’ effect, where smaller distributed roughness displaces the boundary layer away from the wall and lessens the impact of larger roughness peaks. This work describes an experiment specifically designed to study this effect. Three roughness configurations (a deterministic distributed roughness patch, a slanted rectangular prism, and the combination of the two) were manufactured using rapid prototyping and installed flush with the wall of a flat plate boundary layer. Naphthalene flow visualization and hotwire anemometry were used to characterize the boundary layer in the wakes of the different roughness configurations. Distributed roughness with roughness Reynolds numbers ( $\mathit{Re}_{kk}$ ) between 113 and 182 initiated small-amplitude disturbances that underwent transient growth. The discrete roughness element created a pair of high- and low-speed steady streaks in the boundary layer at a sub-critical Reynolds number ( $\mathit{Re}_{kk}=151$ ). At a higher Reynolds number ( $\mathit{Re}_{kk}=220$ ), the discrete element created a turbulent wedge 15 boundary layer thicknesses downstream. When the distributed roughness was added around the discrete roughness, the discrete element’s wake amplitude was decreased. For the higher Reynolds number, this provided a small but measurable transition delay. The distributed roughness redirects energy from longer spanwise wavelength modes to shorter spanwise wavelength modes. The presence of the distributed roughness also decreased the growth rate of secondary instabilities in the roughness wake. This work demonstrates that shielding can delay roughness-induced transition and lays the ground work for future studies of roughness-induced transition.

Information

Type
Papers
Copyright
© 2015 Cambridge University Press 
Figure 0

Figure 1.Flat plate model for roughness experiments (dimensions in mm).

Figure 1

Figure 2.$x_{VLE}/\mathit{Re}^{\prime }$ fits for all test configurations. The open circles represent measurements for the first entry (distributed roughness only), while the filled circles represent measurements for the second entry (discrete only and combined roughness). The solid vertical line shows the location of the discrete roughness element, while the dashed vertical lines show the location of the distributed roughness.

Figure 2

Table 1.$x_{VLE}/\mathit{Re}^{\prime }$ fit parameters for each test condition. ${\it\theta}_{roughness}$ indicates the momentum thickness at the streamwise location of the distributed roughness.

Figure 3

Figure 3.Roughness patch ($k=1~\text{mm}$), after windowing.

Figure 4

Figure 4.Combined roughness configuration ($k_{discrete}=1.00~\text{mm}$, $k_{distributed}=0.85~\text{mm}$).

Figure 5

Table 2.Maximum roughness amplitudes (post-windowing).

Figure 6

Figure 5.Combined roughness insert installed in the flat plate model. Flow travels from left to right.

Figure 7

Table 3.Distributed and discrete roughness heights.

Figure 8

Figure 6.Surface measurement of the discrete roughness element (mm): (a) CMM results, (b) difference between CMM results and as-designed roughness.

Figure 9

Figure 7.Total disturbance profile (a) and mean-flow deformation (b) for the discrete roughness only configuration, low Reynolds number condition at $x=1000~\text{mm}$. The thick lines represent the averaged profiles, while the thinner lines show the disturbance profiles of the wake behind each roughness patch.

Figure 10

Table 4.Experimental test conditions, including roughness heights and $\mathit{Re}_{kk}$ values.

Figure 11

Figure 8.Naphthalene flow visualization of discrete roughness geometry at the lower Reynolds number.

Figure 12

Figure 9.Naphthalene flow visualization of combined roughness geometry at the lower Reynolds number.

Figure 13

Figure 10.Contour plots of steady streamwise velocity (10 % increments) coloured by $100u_{rms}^{\prime }$ at two streamwise locations for the distributed roughness configuration at the lower Reynolds number: (a) $x=1000$ mm, (b) 1600 mm. The height and width of the roughness amplitude envelope are indicated by the white lines.

Figure 14

Figure 11.Contour plots of steady streamwise velocity (10 % increments) coloured by $100u_{rms}^{\prime }$ at four streamwise locations for the discrete roughness only (a,c,e,g) and combined roughness (b,d,f,h) configurations at the lower Reynolds number condition: (a,b) $x=935$ mm, (c,d) $x=1000$ mm, (e,f) $x=1325$ mm, (g,h) $x=1700$ mm. The colour scale changes for $x=1700~\text{mm}$ plots.

Figure 15

Figure 12.Total disturbance profiles for all three roughness configurations at two streamwise locations for the lower Reynolds number condition.

Figure 16

Figure 13.Total disturbance profiles at multiple streamwise locations for the discrete roughness only (a) and combined roughness (b) configurations at the lower Reynolds number condition.

Figure 17

Figure 14.$U_{mean}^{\prime }$ profiles at multiple streamwise locations for the discrete roughness only (a) and combined roughness (b) configurations at the lower Reynolds number condition.

Figure 18

Figure 15.Streamwise evolution of disturbance energy for the distributed roughness configuration at the higher Reynolds number condition. The dashed vertical lines show the location of the distributed roughness.

Figure 19

Figure 16.Streamwise evolution of disturbance energy for the discrete roughness only configuration at the lower Reynolds number condition.

Figure 20

Figure 17.Comparison of total disturbance energy for the three roughness configurations at the lower Reynolds number configuration. The asterisks represent the distributed roughness only configuration, the circles represent the discrete roughness only configuration, and the squares represent the combined roughness configuration. The vertical lines represent the location of the discrete (solid lines) and distributed (dashed lines) roughness locations. (a) Total energy, (b) $m=0$, (c) $m=1$, (d) $m=2$, (e) $m=3$, (f) $m=4$.

Figure 21

Figure 18.Naphthalene flow visualization of discrete roughness geometry for the higher Reynolds number.

Figure 22

Figure 19.Naphthalene flow visualization of combined roughness geometry for the higher Reynolds number.

Figure 23

Figure 20.Contour plots of steady streamwise velocity (10 % increments) coloured by $100u_{rms}^{\prime }$ at two streamwise locations for the distributed roughness configuration at the higher Reynolds number: (a) $x=1000$ mm, (b) $x=1600$ mm.

Figure 24

Figure 21.Contour plots of steady streamwise velocity (10 % increments) coloured by $100u_{rms}^{\prime }$ at three streamwise locations for the discrete (a,c,e) and combined (b,d,f) roughness configurations at the higher Reynolds number condition: (a,b) $x=928$ mm, (c,d) $x=950$ mm, (e,f) $x=975$ mm. The colour scale changes for each plot.

Figure 25

Figure 22.Contour plots of steady streamwise velocity (10 % increments) coloured by $100u_{rms}^{\prime }$ at three streamwise locations for the discrete (a,c,e) and combined (b,d,f) roughness configurations at the higher Reynolds number: (a,b) $x=1000$ mm, (c,d) $x=1050$ mm, (e,f) $x=1100$ mm.

Figure 26

Figure 23.Total disturbance profiles at multiple streamwise locations for the discrete (a) and combined (b) roughness configurations at the higher Reynolds number.

Figure 27

Figure 24.$U_{mean}^{\prime }$ profiles at multiple streamwise locations for the discrete (a) and combined (b) roughness configurations at the higher Reynolds number.

Figure 28

Figure 25.Normalized temporal power spectrum at $y=1.7~\text{mm}$, $z=-3~\text{mm}$ for the discrete roughness (a) and combined roughness (b) configurations at the higher Reynolds number condition. The vertical lines show the range of unstable T–S waves in the undisturbed boundary layer from $x=900~\text{mm}$ to $x=1000~\text{mm}$.

Figure 29

Figure 26.Comparison of unsteady disturbance energy for the discrete and combined roughness configurations for the higher Reynolds number condition on a log axis. The exponential growth rate is shown using dashed lines.