The reattachment and relaxation of a turbulent shear layer

Abstract

Existing experiments on the low-speed flow downstream of steps and fences, and some new measurements downstream of a backward-facing step, are used to demonstrate the complicated nature of the flow in the reattachment region and its effect on the slow non-monotonic return of the shear layer to the ordinary boundary-layer state. A key feature of the flow is found to be the splitting of the shear layer at reattachment, where part of the flow is deflected upstream into the recirculating flow region to supply the entrainment; the part of the flow that continues downstream suffers a pronounced decrease in eddy length scale, evidently because the larger eddies are torn in two. This phenomenon will occur in all cases where a shear layer reattaches after a prolonged region of separation, either at low speed or in supersonic flow. For simplicity, the discussion in the present paper is confined to low-speed flows.