Skin-friction measurements in a turbulent boundary layer under the influence of free-stream turbulence

Abstract

This experimental investigation deals with the influence of free-stream turbulence (FST) produced by an active grid on the skin friction of a zero-pressure-gradient turbulent boundary layer. Wall shear stress is obtained by oil-film interferometry. In addition, hot-wire anemometry was performed to obtain wall-normal profiles of streamwise velocity. This enables the skin friction to be deduced from the mean profile. Both methods show remarkable agreement for every test case. Although skin friction is shown to increase with FST, the trend with Reynolds number is found to be similar to cases without FST. Furthermore, once the change in the friction velocity is accounted for, the self-similarity of the logarithmic region and below (i.e. law of the wall) appears to hold for all FST cases investigated.