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arXiv · 1010.4000

The structure of a turbulent boundary layer studied by numerical simulation

Philipp Schlatter·Mattias Chevalier·Miloš Ilak·Dan S. Henningson
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Abstract

Time-dependent visualisations of large-scale direct and large-eddy simulations (DNS and LES) of a turbulent boundary layer reaching up to $Re_\theta=4300$ are presented. The focus of the present fluid dynamics video is on analysing the coherent vortical structures in the boundary layer: It is clearly shown that hairpin vortices are indeed present in the simulation data, however they are characteristic remainders of the laminar-turbulent transition at lower Reynolds numbers. At higher $Re$ (say $Re_\theta>2000$), these structures are no longer seen as being dominant; the coherence is clearly lost, both in the near-wall region as well as in the outer layer of the boundary layer. Note, however, that large-scale streaks in the streamwise velocity, which have their peak energy at about half the boundary-layer thickness, are unambiguously observed.

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Philipp Schlatter, Mattias Chevalier, Miloš Ilak, Dan S. Henningson. 2010-10-19. The structure of a turbulent boundary layer studied by numerical simulation. https://arxiv.org/abs/1010.4000

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