Large-scale motion in a turbulent boundary layer: a study using temperature contamination

Abstract

A fully developed turbulent boundary layer with a zero pressure gradient was explored by using temperature as a passive contaminant in order to study the large-scale structure. The temperature tracer was introduced into the flow field by heating the entire wall to approximately 12°C above the free-stream temperature. The most interesting observation was the existence of a sharp internal temperature front, characterized by a rapid decrease in temperature, that extended throughout the entire boundary layer. In the outer, intermittent region, the internal temperature front was always associated with the upstream side of the turbulent bulges, i.e. the ‘backs’. It extended across the entire logarithmic region and was related to the sharp acceleration associated with the bursting phenomenon near the wall. Conditional averages of the velocities measured with the temperature front revealed that it was associated with an internal shear layer. The results suggest that this shear layer provides a dynamical relationship between the large structures in the outer, intermittent region and the bursting phenomenon near the wall.