The Effect of Turbulent Intensity on Friction Coefficient in Boundary-Layer Transitional Flat Plate Flow

Abstract

In this study, the effect of inlet-turbulence intensity on the friction coefficient for the transitional boundary layer has been investigated computationally. For this purpose, two equation turbulence models of Std. k-ε, RNG k-ε, Std. k-ω, and SST k-ω have been compared with the Gamma–Theta (GT) transitional model, and it has been found that the Gamma–Theta model is the most consistent model with the experimental values of the ERCOFTAC T3A test case. Then, the effect of inlet-turbulence intensity on the friction coefficient has been computed by using this Gamma–Theta model. The transition from laminar to turbulence is shortened with increasing turbulence intensity by changing it from 1% to 10%. The most suitable inlet-turbulence intensity value with the experimental results of the ERCOFTAC T3A test case is found as Tu = 3.3%.