Scale-by-scale energy budget in a turbulent boundary layer over a rough wall

Hot-wire velocity measurements are carried out in a turbulent boundary layer over a rough wall consisting of transverse circular rods, with a ratio of 8 between the spacing (w) of two consecutive rods and the rod height (k). The pressure distribution around the roughness element is used to accurately measure the mean friction velocity ($U_{\tau }$) and the error in the origin. It is found that $U_{\tau }$ remained practically constant in the streamwise direction suggesting that the boundary layer over this surface is evolving in a self-similar manner. This is further corroborated by the similarity observed at all scales of motion, in the region $0.2⩽y/\delta ⩽0.6$, as reflected in the constancy of Reynolds number ($R_{\lambda }$) based on Taylor’s microscale and the collapse of Kolmogorov normalized velocity spectra at all wavenumbers.A scale-by-scale budget for the second-order structure function $〈{(\delta u)}^2〉$ ($\delta u=u(x+r)-u(x)$, where u is the fluctuating streamwise velocity component and r is the longitudinal separation) is carried out to investigate the energy distribution amongst different scales in the boundary layer. It is found that while the small scales are controlled by the viscosity, intermediate scales over which the transfer of energy (or $〈{(\delta u)}^3〉$) is important are affected by mechanisms induced by the large-scale inhomogeneities in the flow, such as production, advection and turbulent diffusion. For example, there are non-negligible contributions from the large-scale inhomogeneity to the budget at scales of the order of $\lambda$, the Taylor microscale, in the region of the boundary layer extending from $y/\delta =0.2$ to 0.6 ($\delta$ is the boundary layer thickness).     

“Inviscid Finger” Instability in Regular Models of a Porous Medium

Displacement of a fluid from a porous medium is considered. The flow is assumed to be fast enough, i.e., the Reynolds number based on the characteristic pore size is large. If he driving fluid is less dense (for example, a gas), the interface is unstable. This instability is similar to the well–known viscous finger instability but the governing parameter is density instead of viscosity. The instability is demonstrated experimentally using two–dimensional models. In square lattices of perpendicular channels, noticeable branching of fingers is not observed, which is attributed to the anisotropy of such an artificial porous medium. A more ordinary pattern with finger branching is obtained in a two–dimensional layer of spheres, which appears to be more isotropic. A simple model describing flow in a square lattice is proposed. The initial stage of growth is considered, and the instability increment is estimated. A qualitative analysis of the nonlinear stage is performed.     

Shear-layer acoustic radiation in an excited subsonic jet: experimental study

The subharmonic acoustic radiation of a tone excited subsonic jet shear-layer has been investigated experimentally. Two jet velocities $U_j=20\text{m}?{\text{s}}^{\mathrm{?1}}$ and $U_j=40\text{m}?{\text{s}}^{\mathrm{?1}}$ were studied. For $U_j=20\text{m}?{\text{s}}^{\mathrm{?1}}$, the natural boundary-layer at the nozzle exit is laminar. When the perturbation is applied, the fluctuations of the first and the second subharmonics of the excitation frequency are detected in the shear-layer. In addition, the first subharmonic near pressure field along the spreading jet is constituted of two strong maxima of sinusoidal shape. The far-field directivity pattern displays two lobes separated by an extinction angle ${\theta }^{?}$ at around 85° from the jet axis. These observations follow the results of Bridges about the vortex pairing noise. On the other hand, for $U_j=40\text{m}?{\text{s}}^{\mathrm{?1}}$, the initial boundary-layer is transitional and only the first subharmonic is observed in the presence of the excitation. The near pressure field is of Gaussian shape in the jet periphery and the acoustic far-field is superdirective as observed by Laufer and Yen. The state of the initial shear-layer seems to be the key feature to distinguish these two different radiation patterns. To cite this article: V. Fleury et al., C. R. Mecanique 333 (2005).