Effect of high- or low-speed fluctuations on the small-scale bursting events in an active control experiment*

Abstract

Active control of a fully developed turbulence boundary layer (TBL) over a flat plate has been investigated with a statistical view. The piezoelectric (PZT) oscillator is employed to produce periodic input into the inner region of the TBL. A wall probe is fixed upstream of the oscillator to identify the high- or low-speed fluctuations as the detecting signals. Then, the impact of the detecting signals on the small-scale bursting process is investigated based on the data acquired by the traversing probe downstream of the oscillator. The results indicate that the small-scale bursting intensity is restrained more apparently at high-speed detecting fluctuations but less impacted at low-speed detecting fluctuations. Furthermore, the perturbed-scale fluctuations arrange the small-scale bursting process in the near-wall region. The detecting signals have an obvious impact on this arrangement, especially the high-intensity regions of the small-scale bursting events: the vibration enhances the intensity at high-speed detecting signals but weakens it at low-speed detecting signals in these regions, which gives a direct evidence on how detecting signals interfering the small-scale bursting process.