Scaling laws for fully developed turbulent shear flows. Part 2. Processing of experimental data

Abstract

In Part 1 of this work (Barenblatt 1993) a non-universal scaling law (depending on the Reynolds number) for the mean velocity distribution in fully developed turbulent shear flow was proposed, together with the corresponding skin friction law. The universal logarithmic law was also discussed and it was shown that it can be understood, in fact, as an asymptotic branch of the envelope of the curves corresponding to the scaling law.Here in Part 2 the comparisons with experimental data are presented in detail. The whole set of classic Nikuradze (1932) data, concerning both velocity distribution and skin friction, was chosen for comparison. The instructive coincidence of predictions with experimental data suggests the conclusion that the influence of molecular viscosity within the main body of fully developed turbulent shear flows remains essential, even at very large Reynolds numbers. Meanwhile, some incompleteness of the experimental data presented in the work of Nikuradze (1932) is noticed, namely the lack of data in the range of parameters where the difference between scaling law and universal logarithmic law predictions should be the largest.