Origin of the peak-valley wave structure leading to wall turbulence

Abstract

A generation process for the three-dimensional wave which dominates the transition preceded by a Tollmien-Schlichting (T-S) wave is studied both experimentally and numerically in plane Poiseuille flow at a subcritical Reynolds number of 5000. In order to identify the origin of the three-dimensional wave in Nishioka et al.'s laboratory experiment, the corresponding spanwise mean-flow distortion and two-dimensional T-S wave modes are introduced into a parabolic flow as the initial disturbance conditions for a numerical simulation of temporally growing type. Through reproducing the actual wave development into the peak-valley structure, the simulation pinpoints the origin to be the slight spanwise mean-flow distortion in the experimental basic flow. Furthermore, the simulation clearly shows that the growth of the three-dimensional wave requires the vortex stretching effect due to the streamwise vortices, which appear under the experimental conditions only when the amplitude of the two-dimensional T-S wave is above the observed threshold.