Large-scale energy in turbulent boundary layers: Reynolds-number and pressure-gradient effects

Abstract

Adverse-pressure-gradient (APG) turbulent boundary layers (TBLs) are studied using hot-wire measurements which cover a Clauser pressure-gradient-parameter range up to β ≈ 2.4. Constant and non-constant β distributions with the same upstream history are studied. The pre-multiplied power-spectral density is employed to study the differences in the large-scale energy content throughout the boundary layer. Two different large-scale phenomena are identified, the first one due to the pressure gradient and the second one due to the Reynolds number; the latter is also present in high-Re ZPG TBLs. A decomposition of the streamwise velocity fluctuations using a temporal filter shows that the small-scale velocity fluctuations do not scale in APG TBL flows since the effect of the large-scale features extends up to the near-wall region.