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Experimental analysis of the log law at adverse pressure gradient

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2021

Tobias Knopp*
Affiliation:
Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Bunsenstr. 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
N. Reuther
Affiliation:
Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics, Universität der Bundeswehr München (UniBw), Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, 85577 Neubiberg, Germany
M. Novara
Affiliation:
Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Bunsenstr. 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
D. Schanz
Affiliation:
Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Bunsenstr. 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
E. Schülein
Affiliation:
Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Bunsenstr. 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
A. Schröder
Affiliation:
Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Bunsenstr. 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
C.J. Kähler
Affiliation:
Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics, Universität der Bundeswehr München (UniBw), Werner-Heisenberg-Weg 39, 85577 Neubiberg, Germany
*
†Email address for correspondence: tobias.knopp@dlr.de

Abstract

The experimental data for the mean velocity are analysed in the inner layer for a turbulent boundary layer at significant adverse pressure gradient and Reynolds numbers up to $\textit {Re}_\theta =57\,000$. The aim is to determine the resilience of the log law for the mean velocity, the possible change of the von Kármán constant $\kappa$ and the appearance of a square-root law above the log law at significant adverse pressure gradients. In the wind-tunnel experiment, the adverse pressure gradient is imposed by an $S$-shaped deflection of the contour model which is mounted on a wind-tunnel sidewall. A large-scale particle imaging velocimetry method is applied to measure the streamwise evolution of the flow over a streamwise distance of 15 boundary layer thicknesses. In the adverse pressure gradient region, microscopic and three-dimensional Lagrangian particle tracking velocimetry are used to measure the mean velocity and the Reynolds stresses down to the viscous sublayer. Oil-film interferometry is used to determine the wall shear stress. The log law in the mean-velocity profile is found to be a robust feature at adverse pressure gradient, but its region is thinner than its zero pressure gradient counterpart, and its slope is altered. A square-root law emerges above the log law, extending to the wall distance the log law typically occupies at zero pressure gradient. Lower values for $\kappa$ are found than for zero pressure gradient turbulent boundary layers, but the reduction is within the uncertainty of the measurement.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Sketch of the wind-tunnel experiment with flow direction (axes not to scale).

Figure 1

Table 1. Summary of the experimental parameters for the reference position $x_{ref}=9.944\ \mathrm {m}$. The flow was seeded with DEHS droplets with a diameter of approx. $1\ \mathrm {\mu }\mathrm {m}$. px, pixel.

Figure 2

Figure 2. Streamwise distribution of $c_{p}$ and ${\rm d} c_{p}/{\rm d}s$ (a) and $c_{f}$ from OFI (b) for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 3

Figure 3. (a) Streamwise distribution of the boundary layer thickness evaluated using different criteria: U-tilde: $\tilde {U}$ by Coleman et al. (2018); $u'/U$: by Vinuesa et al. (2016); $U_p$: by Patel & Sotiropoulos (1997); TNTI, $\gamma =0.3$: by Reuther & Kähler (2018). (b) Mean velocity profile for $U$, $\tilde {U}$ and $U_{p}$ at the ZPG position $x=8.12\ \mathrm {m}$, at $x=9.42\ \mathrm {m}$ on the curved wall at APG, and at $10.02\ \mathrm {m}$ on the inclined flat wall element at APG for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Streamwise pressure gradient parameter (a) in inner scaling, (b) in Clauser–Rotta scaling and (c) in the scaling by Zagarola & Smits for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 5

Figure 5. (a) Shape factor $H_{12}$ and (b) $\delta _{99}/R_c$ for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ (geometry not to scale), and (c) eddy turnover length $\delta _{{t.o.}}$ for $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 6

Table 2. Characteristic boundary layer parameters for the 2D2C PIV measurements evaluated by the PIV single-pixel ensemble correlation method.

Figure 7

Figure 6. (a) Mean-velocity profile for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ at $x=8.12\ \mathrm {m}$ and reference data for a similar value of $\textit {Re}_\tau$ and $\textit {Re}_\theta$ in the wind tunnel HRNBLWT (high Reynolds number boundary layer wind tunnel at the University of Melbourne) by Marusic et al. (2015). (b) Shape factor $H_{12}$ and reference data in Bailey et al. (2013) and Marusic et al. (2015) measured in the wind tunnels HRNBLWT and MTL.

Figure 8

Table 3. Statistical evaluation of $u_\tau$ and $\kappa$ at $x=8.12\ \mathrm {m}$ at almost ZPG by variation of lower bound $y^{+}_{log,min}$ and upper bound $y_{log,max}/\delta _{995}$ assumed for the log-law region. px., pixel; wind. corr., window correlation.

Figure 9

Table 4. Results for $u_\tau$ and $\kappa$ at the APG position for the $\mu$PTV data at $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 10

Figure 7. Two-dimensional $\mu$PTV data for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ at $x=9.944\ \mathrm {m}$. Mean-velocity profile in the viscous sublayer in inner units using $u_\tau$ (a) from OFI and (b) from a linear fit to $u^{+}=y^{+}$.

Figure 11

Figure 8. Three-dimensional LPT data for $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ at $x=9.944\ \mathrm {m}$. Mean-velocity profile in the viscous sublayer in inner units using $u_\tau$ (a) from a least-squares fit of the total shear stress described in appendix E and (b) from a least-squares fit to the mean-velocity profile by Nickels (2004).

Figure 12

Table 5. Results for $u_\tau$ and $\kappa$ at the APG position for the three-dimensional LPT data at $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 13

Figure 9. Mean-velocity profile and least-squares fit in the log-law region at $x=9.944\ \mathrm {m}$ (a) for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ using $u_\tau$ from OFI and (b) for $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ using $u_\tau$ from a least-squares fit to the profile by Nickels (2004) for $y^{+}<20$.

Figure 14

Figure 10. (a) Value of $\kappa$ vs $\Delta p_s^{+}$. The symbols show the method for $u_\tau$. Two-dimensional ${\mu }$PTV data for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$: $\blacksquare$, OFI; $\blacklozenge$, fit to $u^{+}=y^{+}$; $\blacktriangleright$, fit to profile by Nickels (2004); $\blacktriangle$, Clauser chart. Three-dimensional LPT data for $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$: $\vartriangle$, Clauser chart; $\triangleright$, fit to profile by Nickels (2004); $\triangledown$, Clauser chart with empirical correction. The 2D2C PIV data using OFI for $u_\tau$: $\lozenge$, $x=8.12\ \mathrm {m}$ at almost ZPG; solid line, correlation by Nickels (2004) for $\kappa _0=0.39$; dashed line, correlation by Nickels (2004) using $\kappa _0=0.40$. (b) Plot of $\kappa B$ and vs $B$. Same symbols as in (a); solid line, correlation by Monkewitz et al. (2008).

Figure 15

Figure 11. The 2D2C PIV results at APG for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ at $x=9.944\ \mathrm {m}$. (a) Log-law and sqrt-law regions. (b) Mean-velocity slope diagnostic function of the sqrt law.

Figure 16

Figure 12. Three-dimensional LPT STB results for $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ at $x=9.944\ \mathrm {m}$. (a) Log-law and sqrt-law regions. (b) Mean-velocity slope diagnostic function of the sqrt law.

Figure 17

Table 6. Positions for the mean-flow profiles from the 2D2C PIV overview measurement. The values are for the case $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ using the values for $u_\tau$ obtained by OFI.

Figure 18

Figure 13. Mean-velocity profiles for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ at almost ZPG and in the region of curvature with change from favourable to APG.

Figure 19

Figure 14. Mean-velocity profiles for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ in the APG region.

Figure 20

Figure 15. (a) Defect shape factor $G$ for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ and theory for equilibrium flows by Mellor & Gibson (1966) with the data by Bradshaw in Coles & Hirst (1969). (b) Mean velocity for $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$ at $x=9.944\ \mathrm {m}$ and data by Schubauer & Klebanoff in Coles & Hirst (1969) at similar local flow conditions $\Delta p_s^{+}$ and $\Delta u_{\tau ,s}^{+}$, see (E2a–c).

Figure 21

Table 7. Summary of local flow parameters for APG flows shown in figure 15(b).

Figure 22

Table 8. Summary of flow conditions in the wind tunnel.

Figure 23

Figure 16. (a) Mean-velocity slope diagnostic function for the log law for $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$. (b) Determination of $u_\tau$ by a least-square fit of the measured total shear stress (denoted by 3D LPT STB, ave) and the remaining terms of the integral momentum balance (A2), see (3) in Volino & Schultz (2018). For the nomenclature see (E1a–c).

Figure 24

Table 9. Uncertainty quantification for $u_\tau$ for the least-squares fit to the viscous sublayer profile $u^{+}=y^{+}$ in the region $y^{+}\in [2; 4.6]$ for the ${\mu }$PTV data at $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 25

Table 10. Uncertainty quantification for $u_\tau$ for the least-squares fit to the profile by Nickels (2004) in the region $y^{+}\in [2; 20]$ for the ${\mu }$PTV data at $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 26

Table 11. Uncertainty quantification for $u_\tau$ for the fit to the profile by Nickels (2004) in the region $y^{+}\in [5; 20]$ for the three-dimensional LPT data for $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 27

Table 12. Sources of uncertainties for the determination of $\kappa$ and uncertainty quantification for the ${\mu }$PTV data for $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 28

Table 13. Sources of uncertainties for the determination of $\kappa$ and uncertainty quantification for the three-dimensional LPT data for $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 29

Table 14. Sources of uncertainties for the determination of $u_\tau$ using the CCM and uncertainty quantification for the ${\mu }$PTV data at $U_\infty =23\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.

Figure 30

Table 15. Sources of uncertainties for the determination of $u_\tau$ using the CCM and uncertainty quantification for the three-dimensional LPT data at $U_\infty =36\ \mathrm {m}\ \mathrm {s}^{-1}$.