4.1. Mean thermodynamic properties

The thermodynamic properties across the boundary layer are first examined in figure 1, under different wall-cooling conditions. It is shown that, in both cases, the mean temperature gradient changes sign in close vicinity of the wall, which consequently reverses the direction of conductive heat transfer. As the wall-cooling intensity increases, the wall-normal location of the maximum mean temperature moves away from the wall, i.e. from $y/\delta _{99}\approx 0.005$ in the $cold1$ case to $0.04$ in the $cold2$ case. Moreover, considerable differences are seen in the magnitude and gradient of mean temperature in the two cases. As depicted in figures 1(b) and 1(c), with the increase of temperature, the mean density decreases and the mean viscosity increases. To distinguish the effect of Reynolds number from that of the mean thermal properties on the turbulent statistics and structures, a semilocal friction Reynolds number, $Re_\tau ^\star$, was proposed and used as a governing parameter for flow comparison (Patel et al. Reference Patel, Peeters, Boersma and Pecnik2015). The variation of this semilocal Reynolds number across the boundary layer is plotted in figure 1(d). In alignment with the trends of mean density, $Re_\tau ^\star$ decreases towards the wall, reaching a minimum close to the wall. As the wall is approached, a small increase is observed (see inset in figure 1d). With the weaker and stronger cooling exerted on the wall, the $Re_\tau ^\star$ profiles show a clear difference in gradient for the two different cases, indicating that wall heat flux impacts not only the thermal properties of the flow but also the turbulent characteristics (Shadloo et al. Reference Shadloo, Hadjadj and Hussain2015).

Figure 1.

Profiles of (a) temperature $\langle T\rangle /T_\infty$, (b) density $\langle \rho \rangle /\rho _\infty$, (c) viscosity $\langle \mu \rangle /\mu _w$ and (d) semilocal Reynolds number $Re_\tau ^\star$, as a function of $y/\delta _{99}$, in the hypersonic turbulent boundary layers under two wall-cooling conditions.

4.2. Turbulent statistics

The wall-normal distributions of Reynolds shear stress and turbulent heat flux are shown in figure 2, where both the classical inner scaling ($\kern0.7pt y^+$) and the semilocal scaling ($\kern0.7pt y^*$) (Huang et al. Reference Huang, Coleman and Bradshaw1995) are used. The superscript $+$ denotes the normalization with wall units, namely the wall density $\rho _w$, the friction velocity $u_\tau =\sqrt {\tau _w/\rho _w}$ and the viscous length scale $\delta _\nu = \nu _w/u_\tau$, where $\tau _w$ is the wall shear stress and $\nu _w$ denotes the kinematic viscosity coefficient at the wall. The superscript $*$ denotes the normalization with semilocal units based on the local density and viscosity, that is, the semilocal velocity scale $u_\tau ^*=\sqrt {\tau _w/\langle \rho \rangle }$ and the semilocal length scale $\delta _\nu ^*=\langle \nu \rangle /u_\tau ^*$. Here, $\langle \nu \rangle$ is the local mean kinematic viscosity. The variables $-\langle \rho u''{v''}\rangle ^*$ and $\langle \rho v'' \phi '' \rangle ^*$ are normalized by $\langle \rho \rangle u_\tau ^{*2}$, which actually amounts to $\rho _w u_\tau ^2$.

Figure 2.

Profiles of (a,c) Reynolds shear stress and (b,d) turbulent heat flux in the hypersonic turbulent boundary layers under two wall-cooling conditions. The dashed lines in panels (b) and (d) represent the value of zero.

In the inner scaling, as shown in figure 2(a,b), with the decrease of the wall-to-recovery temperature ratio (i.e. increase in wall cooling), $-\langle \rho u''{v''}\rangle ^+$ is found to be reduced for $y^+<100$, whereas it remains almost unchanged for $y^+>100$. This indicates that the wall-temperature effects on the momentum transport are considerably attenuated in the outer region. A different phenomenon is seen in the wall-normal distribution of turbulent heat flux, which is decreased throughout the boundary layer in the $cold2$ case. In particular, near the wall, $\langle \rho v'' \phi '' \rangle ^+$ becomes negative with stronger wall cooling, which is associated with the direction of heat conduction (Fan et al. Reference Fan, Li and Pirozzoli2022; Fan & Li Reference Fan and Li2023). However, in figure 2(c), the semilocal scaling better collapses the inner peak location of the Reynolds shear stress, whereas in figure 2(d), the profiles of turbulent heat flux have peaks at different $y^*$ for different wall-cooling intensities, as the peaks are located at an outer-layer position which is more associated with the outer scales. In general, considering the coupling effects of the rapid variations of thermodynamic properties in compressible turbulent boundary layers, the semilocal scaling is shown to be more appropriate to describe the wall-normal distributions of turbulent statistics (Huang et al. Reference Huang, Coleman and Bradshaw1995; Zhang et al. Reference Zhang, Duan and Choudhari2018). Hence, we use the semilocal scaling ($\kern0.7pt y^*$) in the following discussion.

To more comprehensively learn the correlation between wall heat flux and the distribution of $-\langle \rho u''{v''}\rangle ^*$ and $\langle \rho v'' \phi '' \rangle ^*$ across the boundary layer, further attention is paid to the role of $B_q$-perturbations ($B'_{q}$), which interact with the instantaneous dynamical/thermodynamical process and are highly connected to the statistical variations in the momentum/heat transport consequently. Figure 3 displays snapshots of instantaneous wall-heat-flux fluctuations ($B'_q$). Two kinds of structures are visualized: first, elongated streaks and second, the alternating positive and negative structures (APNSs), similar to the observations in the study by Zhang et al. (Reference Zhang, Wan, Dong, Liu, Sun and Lu2023). The travelling-wave-like APNSs, as marked by the dashed boxes, are closely associated with the velocity dilatation (Xu et al. Reference Xu, Wang, Wan, Yu, Li and Chen2021b) and tend to dominate the $B'_{q}$-events due to the high compressibility of the cases under scrutiny. As the wall-cooling intensity increases, the structures become larger in both streamwise and spanwise directions.

Figure 3.

Instantaneous fields of wall-heat-flux fluctuations, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$. Here, $\delta _{in}$ denotes the boundary-layer thickness at the inflow station. The dashed boxes indicate the alternating positive and negative structures.

Figure 4 quantifies the probability density functions (p.d.f.s) of $B'_{q}$, with their skewness calculated by $S(B'_{q})=\langle B'^3_{q}\rangle /\langle B'^2_{q}\rangle ^{3/2}$ and annotated. In the $cold1$ case, the p.d.f. profile is slightly negatively skewed with $S(B'_{q})=-0.43$, even though this is hard to discern. As the wall-cooling intensity increases, this type of asymmetrical distribution becomes clear with the value of $S(B'_{q})$ decreasing to $-0.60$, and the extreme wall heat flux is intensified in the tails. As a consequence, the negative $B'_{q}$-events are stronger in intensity, but fewer in number than the positive ones. This phenomenon is consistent with the finding by Zhang et al. (Reference Zhang, Wan, Dong, Liu, Sun and Lu2023) in the Mach number 8 case. (It is worth noting that the p.d.f. plot in their paper is in contrast to figure 4. This is because they defined $q_w$ analogous to wall shear stress in (3.1a,b) which is opposite to our definition $q_w = -K\partial T/\partial y|_w$.)

Figure 4.

Probability density function of the wall-heat-flux fluctuations. The blue and red regions denote the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B'_{q}$-events.

The connection between $B'_{q}$ and the globally averaged Reynolds shear stress and turbulent heat flux is investigated, by means of ${\rm d} \langle -\rho u''v''\rangle ^*/{\rm d}B_q'$ and ${\rm d} \langle \rho v''\phi ''\rangle ^*/{\rm d}B_q'$, in figures 5 and 6. These $B_q'$-wise derivatives bear the advantage that their integrals with respect to $B'_{q}$ directly amount to the value of $-\langle \rho u''v''\rangle ^*$ and $\langle \rho v''\phi ''\rangle ^*$ at all wall-normal locations (Agostini & Leschziner Reference Agostini and Leschziner2019). Hence, they can quantify the contribution of $-\langle \rho u''v''\rangle ^*$ and $\langle \rho v''\phi ''\rangle ^*$ within a specific band of ${\rm d}B_q'$ to their respective total. From figure 5, the local quantity peaks mostly around $B_q'=0$, which is straightforwardly ascribed to the large population of $B'_{q}$-events there. Nevertheless, skewness to the positive events is observed in the map in figure 5(b) in the region $y^*<100$. Consistent with the wall-normal profile of $-\langle \rho u''v''\rangle ^*$, the magnitude of ${\rm d} \langle -\rho u''v''\rangle ^*/{\rm d}B_q'$ is small near the wall, with a significant percentage of it related to motions at the relatively large wall thermal perturbations. A similar phenomenon is found in the map of ${\rm d} \langle \rho v''\phi ''\rangle ^*/{\rm d}B_q'$ (in figure 6), with an exception that the contribution is mostly distributed in the outer region where the $B_q'$-wise derivatives exhibit approximate symmetry with regards to $B_q'= 0$ in both cases. However, as the population of events within a specific band of ${\rm d}B_q'$ varies with the intensity of fluctuations (see the p.d.f. in figure 4), the magnitude of $B_q'$-wise derivatives does not directly reflect the correlation of a single $B_q'$-event with the local properties. To this end, the variation of local mean quantities under the condition of $B_q'$ is investigated in the next section.

Figure 5.

Map of the Reynolds-shear-stress derivative ${\rm d} \langle -\rho u''v''\rangle ^*/{\rm d}B_q'$ for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$.

Figure 6.

Map of the turbulent-heat-flux derivative ${\rm d} \langle \rho v''\phi ''\rangle ^*/{\rm d}B_q'$ for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$.

4.3. Conditional sampling

The average of Reynolds shear stress and turbulent heat flux conditioned on the $B_q'$-events is further examined in this section. The conditional mean quantities, $-\langle \rho u'' v''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'}$ and $\langle \rho v''\phi ''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'}$, are expressed as

(4.1a)$$\begin{gather} -\langle \rho u'' v''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'} ={-}\langle \rho u v \rangle ^*|_{B_q'} +\langle \rho \rangle ^*|_{B_q'} \{ u \}^*|_{B_q'} \{v \}^*|_{B_q'}, \end{gather}$$

(4.1b)$$\begin{gather}\langle \rho v''\phi''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'} = \langle \rho v \phi \rangle ^*|_{B_q'}-\langle \rho\rangle ^*|_{B_q'} \{v\}^*|_{B_q'} \{\phi\}^*|_{B_q'}. \end{gather}$$

With (4.1a), the $-\langle \rho u'' v''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'}$ is quantified at all wall-normal locations in figure 7. Remarkable differences are observed between the left and right sides of the map in the near-wall region, indicating that positive and negative $B_q'$-events have distinct roles in the production of Reynolds shear stress. In particular, negative Reynolds shear stress is observed with negative $B_q'$-events close to the wall. Whereas further away from the wall, the connection between $-\langle \rho u'' v''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'}$ and ${B_q'}$ gradually weakens as $-\langle \rho u'' v''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'}$ barely changes with ${B_q'}$ at large wall-normal distances. An enhanced view of the distinctive properties is further shown in the profiles of the averaged Reynolds shear stress conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events (blue and red regions in figure 4). In figure 7(c), in the near-wall region, the presence of positive wall-heat-flux perturbations is associated with the stronger generation of Reynolds shear stress when introducing additional heat into the fluid from the surface. In contrast, in the region $y^*>80$, the difference associated with the extreme positive and negative $B_q'$-events is almost indiscernible. This again confirms that the interaction between wall-heat-flux perturbations and Reynolds-shear-stress distribution is strong close to the wall, and is gradually attenuated further away from it (say, $y^*>80$ for cases under scrutiny).

Figure 7.

(a,b) Map of the conditional average of Reynolds shear stress, $-\langle \rho u'' v''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'}$, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$. (c) Profiles of the averaged Reynolds shear stress conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events. The black solid lines in panels (a,b) denote the positive level, the black dashed lines denote the negative and the orange dashed line denotes 0.

To gain clearer insight into the correlation between ${B_q'}$ and the turbulent motions responsible for Reynolds shear stress, figure 8 plots the joint p.d.f.s of the fluctuations of streamwise and wall-normal velocities at a representative near-wall location, $y^*=8$, with respect to ${B_q'}$. It is observed that negative ${B_q'}$-events tend to be more closely associated with the positive $u''$-motions and more closely associated with the negative $v''$ in figure 8(a,b). This phenomenon is more evidently exhibited under the condition of stronger wall cooling in figure 8(d,e). Stronger ${B_q'}$ is in alignment with stronger turbulent dynamical motions. The extreme negative and positive ${B_q'}$-events are identified, to characterize their corresponding motions at the wall-normal location $y^*=8$. As shown in figure 8(c), under the condition of weaker wall cooling, the pre-multiplied joint p.d.f. of $u''/u_\infty$ and $v''/u_\infty$ conditioned on the overall $B_q'$-events (denoted by black solid lines) primarily manifests the strong sweep and ejection events in the near-wall cycle. The extreme 2 % positive ${B_q'}$-events (red lines) tend to be more correlated with ejections, whereas the extreme 2 % negative ${B_q'}$-events (blue lines) tend to be related to the sweep events. When the wall-cooling intensity increases, this trend is more pronouncedly presented, as seen in figure 8(f). In the self-sustaining cycle, the linear lift-up of streaks is associated with the even (varicose) instability mode, which is correlated with the wall-normal gradients of the streamwise velocity. However, the push-over of streaks is more connected to the odd (sinuous) mode, relying on the spanwise shear (Swearingen & Blackwelder Reference Swearingen and Blackwelder1987; Lozano-Durán et al. Reference Lozano-Durán, Constantinou, Nikolaidis and Karp2021). Hence, it suggests that the positive ${B_q'}$-events may correspond to the development of the even mode, which results in active transient growth of streamwise perturbations through a strong wall-normal shear of the inflectional streamwise velocity, while the negative ${B_q'}$-events may correspond to the development of the odd mode.

Figure 8.

(a,d) Joint p.d.f. of $u''/u_\infty$ and $B_q'$, (b,e) joint p.d.f. of $v''/u_\infty$ and $B_q'$, and (c,f) pre-multiplied joint p.d.f. of $u''/u_\infty$ and $v''/u_\infty$, for cases (a,b,c) $cold1$ and (d,e,f) $cold2$ at $y^*=8$. The black solid lines in panels (a,b,d,e) represent the conditional averages of the global velocity perturbations, $\langle u''/u_\infty \rangle |_{B_q'}$ and $\langle v''/u_\infty \rangle |_{B_q'}$. The contours in panels (c,f) show fluctuations conditioned on the overall (black), extreme 2 % negative (blue) and extreme 2 % positive (red) $B_q'$-events.

The conditional average of turbulent heat flux, $\langle \rho v''\phi ''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'}$, is shown in figure 9. Similar to the observations in the distribution of the conditional average of Reynolds shear stress, the positive and negative ${B_q'}$-events play distinguishing roles in the distribution of turbulent heat flux. For instance, as shown in figure 9(a,b), the negative extreme ${B_q'}$ is in good alignment with the amplification of turbulent heat flux even in the region further away from the wall (e.g. at $y^*$ approximately 100), indicating that the negative wall events correspond to the enhanced thermodynamic perturbations there. This phenomenon is more straightforwardly displayed in the profiles of the averaged turbulent heat flux conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events, as shown in figure 9(c). Differences between the contributions of positive and negative ${B_q'}$-events are clearly seen in the region even away from the wall, where the majority of thermal energy is produced (Fan & Li Reference Fan and Li2023). This is different from the finding in the map of $-\langle \rho u''v''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'}$, where the averaged quantities conditioned on the positive and negative extreme events almost converge for $y^*>80$, implying that the effect of wall temperature on the thermodynamic structures would be more outstretched in the wall-normal direction.

Figure 9.

(a,b) Map of the conditional average of turbulent heat flux, $\langle \rho v'' \phi''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'}$, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$. (c) Profiles of the averaged turbulent heat flux conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events.

In a similar manner, figure 10 delineates the joint p.d.f.s of the velocities and wall-heat-flux perturbations at $y^*=8$, to reveal the correlation between the dynamical motion and thermal quantity. In both cases, $B_q'$ is slightly negatively correlated with $\phi ''$, while positively correlated with $v''$ at the selected height (shown by the black solid lines in figure 10a,b,d,e). It thus leads to differences in the $\phi ''$–$v''$ correlations conditioned on the overall, extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events. In the $cold1$ case, in figure 10(c), a relatively larger population is seen in Quarter 1 (where $\phi ''>0$ and $v''>0$) and Quarter 3 (where $\phi ''<0$ and $v''<0$), indicating that $\phi ''$ and $v''$ are mostly positively correlated with each other yielding positive turbulent heat flux, as shown in figures 2(d) and 9(c). Nevertheless, a negative correlation of $\phi ''$ and $v''$ appears, with the negative $B_q'$-events preferring the downward motions while the positive ones preferring the upward motions. When there is stronger heat flux at the wall (see figure 10f), the situation differs in that events are more evidently scattered in Quarter 2 (where $\phi ''<0$ and $v''>0$) and Quarter 4 (where $\phi ''>0$ and $v''<0$). This is associated with the sign reversal of temperature gradient within the turbulent boundary layer. At $y^*=8$, the positive thermal structures tend to be carried towards the lower-temperature (lower) layers and the negative thermal structures to the higher-temperature (upper) layers (Pirozzoli & Bernardini Reference Pirozzoli and Bernardini2011; Fan, Li & Sandberg Reference Fan, Li and Sandberg2023). The positive $v''$ motions conditioned on the positive $B_q'$-events are again accentuated in figure 10(f), indicating that the receipt of heat flux from the wall preferentially corresponds to the lift-up of turbulent motions.

Figure 10.

(a,d) Joint p.d.f. of $\phi ''/\phi _\infty$ and $B_q'$, (b,e) joint p.d.f. of $v''/u_\infty$ and $B_q'$, and (c,f) pre-multiplied joint p.d.f. of $\phi ''/\phi _\infty$ and $v''/u_\infty$, for cases (a,b,c) $cold1$ and (d,e,f) $cold2$ at the wall-normal location $y^*=8$. The black solid lines in panels (a,d) track the conditional average $\langle \phi ''/\phi _\infty \rangle |_{B_q'}$.

4.4. The correlation between $B_q'$ and the transport budgets

The Reynolds shear stress and turbulent heat flux evolve in space. To elucidate the interaction of wall heat flux and the evolution process, budgets in the transport equations for Reynolds shear stress and turbulent heat flux are examined in detail.

4.4.1. Evolution of Reynolds shear stress

Figure 11 shows the one-dimensional profiles of the budget terms from (2.1) in semilocal units, as a function of $y^*$. The budget variables are normalized by $\langle \rho \rangle u_\tau ^{*3}/\delta _\nu ^*$. The term of mass contribution associated with the density variation, i.e. $M_{-\rho u v}^*$, is neglected due to its relatively trivial magnitude for the present cases. Figure 11 shows that the Reynolds shear stress is largely produced in the inner region ($\kern0.7pt y^*<50$), with the peak of the production term ($P_{-\rho uv}^*$) located at $y^*\approx 17$ for both cases. The correlation between velocity and pressure gradient, denoted by $\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}= D_{-\rho uv}^{p*}+\varPi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}$, yields negative results, and plays a significant role in diffusing the Reynolds shear stress in space and exchanging it among components (Lee & Moser Reference Lee and Moser2019). Regardless of the wall thermal condition, the semilocal scaling is able to well collapse the inner peak location of $\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}$, preventing the wall-normal shift in classical inner units (Zhang et al. Reference Zhang, Duan and Choudhari2018; Cogo et al. Reference Cogo, Baù, Chinappi, Bernardini and Picano2023). The imbalance between $P_{-\rho uv}^*$ and $\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}$ is consequently compensated for by turbulent diffusion ($D_{-\rho uv}^{t*}$) and viscous action ($\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{\nu *}= D_{-\rho uv}^{\nu *}-\varepsilon _{-\rho uv}^{*}$), with the turbulent diffusion mildly larger in peak magnitude in both cases. When the wall cooling is intensified, a negative peak of $D_{-\rho uv}^{t*}$ appears in a region very close to the wall (e.g. $y^*\approx 4$, see figure 11b), which is probably associated with the stronger conduction of heat in this region. In the following discussion, attention will be paid to the major process of production ($P_{-\rho uv}^*$), pressure work ($\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}$) and turbulent diffusion ($D_{-\rho uv}^{t*}$), and their connection with the wall-heat-flux-perturbation events.

Figure 11.

Profiles of budget terms in the transport equation for Reynolds shear stress, normalized with semilocal units, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$. Here, $\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{\nu *} = D_{-\rho uv}^{\nu *}-\varepsilon _{-\rho uv}^*$ represents the viscous action and $\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{p*} = D_{-\rho uv}^{p*}+\varPi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}$ denotes the velocity-pressure-gradient correlation.

Figures 12(a) and 12(b) show the conditional average of pre-multiplied Reynolds-shear-stress production, under the two different wall-cooling conditions. A similar phenomenon is seen in both cases, that stronger $B_q'$-events are correlated with a more noticeable Reynolds shear stress generation, particularly when the instantaneous heat-flux perturbations at the wall are positive. This is consistent with the observations in figure 7, and can be more straightforwardly displayed by the conditionally averaged quantities based on the extreme events in figure 12(c). The difference between the roles of extreme positive and negative $B_q'$-events is found mainly in the inner-layer cycle. The production of Reynolds shear stress is more strongly correlated with the positive extreme events, except in the region $y^*<10$ in the $cold2$ case. To identify the underlying flow characteristics, the two predominant terms that contribute to $P_{-\rho uv}^*$, namely the wall-normal Reynolds stress ($\langle \rho v''v''\rangle ^*$) and the gradient of streamwise velocity (${\rm d}\{u\}^*/{\rm d} y^*$) according to (2.2a), are investigated in the wall-normal coordinate. To make it consistent with the scaling of budgets in figure 11, the velocity gradient (${\rm d}\{u\}^*/{\rm d} y^*$) is semilocally scaled by $u_\tau ^*/\delta _\nu ^*$. Figure 13 plots the profiles of the $\langle \rho v''v''\rangle ^*|_{B_q'}$ and ${\rm d}\{u\}^*/{\rm d} y^*|_{B_q'}$ conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events, respectively, for both cases. It is observed that in the region $y^*<500$ for the $cold1$ case and $y^*<200$ for the $cold2$ case, the wall-normal Reynolds stress is weakened in the presence of positive $B_q'$-events, indicating that instantaneous wall heating ($B_q'>0$) corresponds to the attenuated wall-normal fluid motions. Beyond that, the positive and negative curves almost collapse onto each other. The plot of ${\rm d}\{u\}^*/{\rm d} y^*|_{B_q'}$ in figure 13(b) demonstrates that under the condition of positive $B_q'$-events, the mean velocity gradient is diminished near the wall, whereas it is enhanced in the layer $10< y^*<100$ in contrast to the negative $B_q'$-events. In this sense, it suggests that the increment of $P_{-\rho uv}^*$ in this region is shear-induced under the condition of positive extreme events.

Figure 12.

(a,b) Map of the conditional average of pre-multiplied Reynolds-shear-stress production, $y^*P_{-\rho uv}^*|_{B_q'}$, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$. (c) Profiles of the averaged pre-multiplied production conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events.

Figure 13.

Profiles of (a) the averaged wall-normal Reynolds stress and (b) the gradient of the Favre averaged streamwise velocity, conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events.

The conditional average of pre-multiplied velocity-pressure-gradient is examined in figure 14(a,b). Similar to the findings for production, stronger $B_q'$-events tend to correspond to a stronger physical process of pressure work. For both $cold1$ and $cold2$ cases, positive/negative $B_q'$-events are tendentiously in alignment with negative/positive $\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}$ close to the wall. The sign reverses along the wall-normal direction, with different distributions under the condition of various $B_q'$-events. As is more clearly shown in the profiles of $y^*\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}$ conditioned on the extreme events in figure 14(c), the negative $\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}$ appears in a region nearer to the wall in the presence of positive thermal events than negative events.

Figure 14.

(a,b) Map of the conditional average of pre-multiplied velocity-pressure-gradient correlation, $y^*\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}|_{B_q'}$, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$. (c) Profiles of the averaged $y^*\varPhi _{-\rho uv}^{p*}$ conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events.

For the conditional average of pre-multiplied turbulent diffusion, as mapped in figure 15(a), the $B_q'$ is in slight association with the distribution of turbulent diffusion in the $cold1$ case, as manifested by the almost collapsed contribution of extreme negative and positive events in figure 15(c). With stronger wall cooling, as presented in figure 15(b), the negative $B_q'$-events tend to be related to the amplified diffusion process near the wall, leading to a net transport of Reynolds stress from this region to other regions. Further away from the wall, the intercorrelation of the turbulent diffusion and the $B_q'$-events is weakened progressively.

Figure 15.

(a,b) Map of the conditional average of pre-multiplied turbulent diffusion of Reynolds shear stress, $y^*D_{-\rho uv}^{t*}|_{B_q'}$, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$. (c) Profiles of the averaged $y^*D_{-\rho uv}^{t*}$ conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events.

4.4.2. Evolution of turbulent heat flux

The wall-normal distributions of the budget terms in (2.4) are depicted in figure 16. The contribution of density and temperature variation to the turbulent-heat-flux evolution, $M_{\rho v \phi }^*$, is excluded due to its relatively small magnitude compared with the other terms, for the cases under scrutiny. In a similar manner to the transport of Reynolds shear stress, the production of $\langle \rho v'' \phi '' \rangle ^*$ is majorly expended in pressure work. The turbulent motions, viscous action and heat conduction serve to transport thermal energy across the boundary layer so as to ensure the balance of the system. A particularly interesting feature is observed in the $cold2$ case, that the production term ($P_{\rho v\phi }^*$) is negative in the region beneath $y^*\approx 10$, where the mean temperature exhibits a maximum. This is consistent with the near-wall profile of $\langle \rho v'' \phi '' \rangle ^*$ in figure 2(d), as the wall-normal motions from higher-temperature to lower-temperature regions always communicate positive $\phi$ fluctuations (Pirozzoli & Bernardini Reference Pirozzoli and Bernardini2011). Consequently, heat conduction is enhanced via stronger wall cooling and plays a considerable role in redistributing the thermal energy especially in $y^*<5$. To reveal the correlation of $\langle \rho v'' \phi '' \rangle ^*$ transport and the fluctuation events of wall heat flux, conditional averages of production ($P_{\rho v\phi }^*$), pressure work ($W_{\rho v\phi }^{p*}$) and turbulent diffusion ($D_{\rho v\phi }^{t*}$) on $B_q'$-events are of major interest.

Figure 16.

Profiles of budget terms in the transport equation for turbulent heat flux, normalized with semilocal units, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$.

Figure 17 plots the conditional average of $y^*P_{\rho v\phi }^*$, showing that the interaction of $B_q'$ and production exists mainly at $y^*<200$. The larger generation of turbulent heat flux tends to be preferentially in correspondence with the negative events, in most of this region. This is partly owing to the stronger wall-normal motions under the condition of instantaneous wall cooling ($B_q'<0$, seen in figure 13), as the wall-normal Reynolds stress is one of the main contributing factors to production formulated in (2.5a). An exception occurs in the viscous sublayer in the $cold2$ case. For $y^*<4$, the profile of $y^*P_{\rho v\phi }^*$ conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative $B_q'$-events is slightly lower than that conditioned on the positive events, as shown by the red and blue dashed lines in figure 17(c). To explain this phenomenon, profiles of another contributing factor $\{\phi \}/\phi _w$ and its wall-normal gradient ${\rm d}\{\phi \}^*/{\rm d} y^*$, conditioned on the extreme 2 % $B_q'$-events, are shown in figure 18. Herein, ${\rm d}\{\phi \}^*/{\rm d} y^*$ denotes the gradient normalized by $u_\tau ^*/\delta _\nu ^*$. For both cases, it is observed that the extreme negative events correspond to a higher local temperature, which is proportional to $\phi ^2$, for $y^*<500$ for the case $cold1$ and $y^*<15$ for $cold2$. Hence, the temperature variation (gradient) is relatively faster (larger) close to the wall, in the presence of negative $B_q'$-events than positive $B_q'$-events, as shown in figure 18(b), leading to a larger production in absolute magnitude which amounts to the smaller negative $y^*P_{\rho v\phi }^*$ delineated by the blue dashed curve in figure 17(c).

Figure 17.

(a,b) Map of the conditional average of pre-multiplied turbulent-heat-flux production, $y^*P_{\rho v\phi }^*|_{B_q'}$, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$. (c) Profiles of the averaged $y^*P_{\rho v\phi }^*$ conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events. The black dashed line in panel (c) denotes 0.

Figure 18.

Profiles of (a) $\{\phi \}/\phi _w$ and (b) the gradient ${\rm d}\{\phi \}^*/{\rm d} y^*$, conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events.

As for the correlation of wall-heat-flux fluctuations and the contribution of pressure work in the transport of turbulent heat flux across the boundary layer, the conditionally averaged distribution of $y^*W_{\rho v\phi }^{p*}$ is given in figure 19. In general, in the context of the extreme $B_q'$-events, the pressure work is enhanced in an inner region $y^*<100$, but with different phenomena observed in the two cases. As shown in figure 19(c), for the case $cold1$, the absolute magnitude of $y^* W_{\rho v\phi }^{p*}$ conditioned on the negative events is amplified in most regions, which is mainly ascribed to the sound-speed-pressure-gradient correlation, i.e. the second term on the right-hand side of (2.5c) (the decomposed plots are not shown for brevity). Conversely, for the $cold2$ case, the bias to the contribution of extreme negative or positive events is not evident throughout the boundary layer.

Figure 19.

(a,b) Map of the conditional average of pre-multiplied pressure work, $y^*W_{\rho v\phi }^{p*}|_{B_q'}$, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$. (c) Profiles of the averaged $y^* W_{\rho v\phi }^{p*}$ conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events.

At last, an approximate symmetry of $y^*D_{\rho v\phi }^{t*}|_{B_q'}$ with regards to $B_q'=0$ is observed in figure 20(a), suggesting that the turbulent diffusion of turbulent heat flux is not sensitive to the fluctuations of wall heat flux with a weaker wall cooling. The profiles of the averaged $y^*D_{-\rho v\phi }^{t*}$ conditioned on the extreme negative and positive $B_q'$-events almost collapse (solid lines in figure 20c). This is similar to the finding in the turbulent diffusion of Reynolds shear stress. As for the case $cold2$, the turbulent diffusion associated with the negative events is enhanced near the wall in figure 20(b), and tends to converge to that under the condition of positive events away from the wall.

Figure 20.

(a,b) Map of the conditional average of pre-multiplied turbulent diffusion of turbulent heat flux, $y^*D_{-\rho v\phi }^{t*}|_{B_q'}$, for cases (a) $cold1$ and (b) $cold2$. (c) Profiles of the averaged $y^*D_{-\rho v\phi }^{t*}$ conditioned on the extreme 2 % negative and positive $B_q'$-events.