Turbulent Boundary Layers on Bodies of Revolution

Abstract

Turbulent boundary-layer flow over two arbitrary bodies of revolution was investigated by comparison with the flow over a two-dimensional wing-like body. For each body of revolution this wing" was first shaped to copy the body of revolution pressure distribution and then modified to have the same longitudinal curvature. The results were interpreted in terms of the effects of the extra rates of strain associated with longitudinal curvature and lateral divergence. These effects could be distinguished reasonably clearly and the experimental results should prove useful for testing calculation methods. Comparison with the calculations of Bradshaw et al [8, 9] shows that there occurs a strong interaction between the extra rates of strain due to convex curvature and divergence and that the implied simple summation of these two effects cannot be justified.