The structure of turbulent boundary layers in the wall region of plane channel flow

Abstract

The flow of a viscous incompressible fluid in a plane channel is simulated numerically with the use of a computational code for the numerical integration of the Navier–Stokes equations, based on a mixed spectral-finite difference technique. A turbulent-flow database representing the turbulent statistically steady state of the velocity field through 10 viscous time units is assembled at friction Reynolds number Re τ =180 and the coherent structures of turbulence are extracted from the fluctuating portion of the velocity field using the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique. The temporal evolution of a number of the most energetic POD modes is represented, showing the existence of dominant flow structures elongated in the streamwise direction whose shape is altered owing to the interaction with quasi-streamwise, bean-shaped turbulent-flow modes. This process of interaction is responsible for the gradual disruption of the streamwise modes of the flow.