Turbulent spots in a Stokes boundary layer

Abstract

The turbulent spots which form in a boundary layer generated by the harmonic oscillations of an incompressible fluid are investigated by numerical means. In order to allow the formation of turbulent spots, the dimensions of the computational box have been increased with respect to previous numerical investigations (Costamagna et al. (2003)). The boundaries of the spots are identified and the speeds of the head, tail, leftmost and rightmost points, are computed. The computed speeds well compare with those measured in steady boundary layers.