On Tollmien–Schlichting-like waves in streaky boundary layers

The linear stability of the boundary layer developing on a flat plate in the presence of finite-amplitude, steady and spanwise periodic streamwise streaks is investigated. The streak amplitudes considered here are below the threshold for onset of the inviscid inflectional instability of sinuous perturbations. It is found that, as the amplitude of the streaks is increased, the most unstable viscous waves evolve from two-dimensional Tollmien–Schlichting waves into three-dimensional varicose fundamental modes which compare well with early experimental findings. The analysis of the growth rates of these modes confirms the stabilising effect of the streaks on the viscous instability and that this stabilising effect increases with the streak amplitude. Varicose subharmonic modes are also found to be unstable but they have growth rates which typically are an order of magnitude lower than those of fundamental modes. The perturbation kinetic energy production associated with the spanwise shear of the streaky flow is found to play an essential role in the observed stabilisation. The possible relevance of the streak stabilising role for applications in boundary layer transition delay is discussed.     

Vortex ring/viscous wall layer interaction model of the turbulence production process near walls

An experimental simulation of the interaction of vortex ring-like eddies with the sublayer of a turbulent boundary layer is investigated. An artificially generated vortex ring interacting with a Stokes' layer enables investigation of the interaction with reproducible initial conditions and in the absence of background turbulence. All of the observed features in the turbulent boundary layer production process such as the streaky structure, the pockets, the hairpin vortices, streak lift-up, oscillation, and breakup, have been observed to form. The model shows us that hairpin vortices can pinchoff and reconnect forming new vortex ring-like eddies. Interestingly, the model includes interactions that occur with low probability in the turbulent boundary layer, but which contribute significantly to transport, and may be the events most readily controllable.     

Nonlinear evolution of Görtler vortices in the near-wall part of a boundary layer

The evolution of Görtler vortices with wavelength smaller than the thickness of the boundary layer on a concave surface is modelled asymptotically at high Reynolds and Görtler numbers. It is known that in the initial linear stage of their evolution such vortices have the largest increment of amplitude growth. Numerical results demonstrate that taking the nonlinear interaction of the flow parameters into account considerably reduces the growth rate and leads to the forming of a perturbed vortex region core; profiles of the flow characteristics in the different stages of vortex evolution are presented.     

Numerical studies of the instability and breakdown of a boundary-layer low-speed streak

The experimental configuration in [M. Asai, M. Minagawa, M. Nishioka, The instability and breakdown of a near-wall low-speed streak, J. Fluid Mech. 455 (2002) 289–314] is numerically reproduced in order to examine the instability of a single low-speed streak in a laminar boundary layer and to investigate the resulting generation of coherent structures. Such a configuration is chosen since the experimental data show that the two instability modes, varicose and sinuous, are of comparable strength. The instability characteristics are retrieved from the simulation of the flow impulse response. The varicose instability is associated to higher frequencies and lower group velocities than those of the sinuous modes. The latter are less affected by the diffusion of the streak mean shear and are amplified for a longer streamwise distance. Analysis of the perturbation kinetic energy production reveals that both the varicose and the sinuous instability are driven by the work of the Reynolds stress against the wall-normal shear of the streak. The base flow considered here therefore presents an exception to the common knowledge, supported by several previous studies, that the sinuous instability is associated to the streak spanwise shear. The vortical structures at the late stage of the varicose breakdown are identified from the numerical data. By comparing them with those pertaining to other transition scenarios, it is confirmed that streaks and streamwise vortices are universal features of boundary layer transition.     

Numerical Simulation of Riblet Controlled Spatial Transition in a Zero-Pressure-Gradient Boundary Layer

To analyze the fundamental physical mechanism which determines the damping effect of a riblet surface on three-dimensional transition several numerical simulations of spatial transition in a flat plate zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer above a riblet wall are performed in this study. Two types of forced transition scenarios are investigated. The first type of transition is defined by K-type transition induced by a dominant two-dimensional Tollmien–Schlichting (TS) wave and a weak spanwise disturbance. The second type of transition is purely excited by two oblique waves. By a qualitative analysis of the occurring maximum wall-normal and spanwise velocity components and the Fourier modes of the disturbances the two-dimensional TS waves are found to be amplified by riblets, whereas three-dimensional structures, i.e., Λ-, hairpin, and streamwisely aligned vortices, are damped. At oblique transition the breakdown to turbulence is delayed by the riblets compared to transition on a clean surface. The investigation of the near wall flow structure reveals secondary flows induced by the riblets and reduced wall normal ejections as well as a reduced downwash.     

Temporal development of turbulent boundary layers with embedded streamwise vortices

The interaction of streamwise vortices with turbulent boundary layer has been investigated using large-eddy simulation. The initial conditions are a pair of counterrotating Oseen vortices with flow between them directed toward the wall (common-flow-down), superimposed on various instantaneous realizations of a turbulent boundary layer. The time development of the vortices and their interaction with the boundary layer are studied by integrating the filtered Navier-Stokes equations in time. The most important effects of the vortices on the boundary layer are the thinning of the boundary layer between vortices (downwash region) and the thickening of the boundary layer in the upwash region. The vortices first move toward the wall as a result of the self-induced velocity, and then apart from each other because of the image vortices due to the solid wall. The Reynolds stress profiles highlight the highly three-dimensional structure of the turbulent boundary layer modified by the vortices. The presence of significant turbulent activity near the vortex center and in the upwash region suggests that localized instability mechanisms in addition to the convection of turbulent energy by the secondary flow are responsible for this effect. High levels of turbulent kinetic energy and secondary stresses in the vicinity of the vortex center are also observed. The numerical results show good agreement with experimental results.This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research under Grant N00014-89-J-1638. Computer time was supplied by the San Diego Supercomputing Center.     

可压缩燃烧反应转捩混合层直接数值模拟

针对三维时间发展可压缩氢/氧非预混燃烧反应平面自由剪切混合层,采用5阶迎风/6阶对称紧致混合差分格式以及3阶显式Runge-Kutta时间推进方法,直接数值模拟了伴随燃烧产物生成和反应能量释放, 流动受扰动激发失稳并转捩的演化过程. 在转捩初期, 获得了${\it\Lambda}$涡、马蹄涡等典型的大尺度拟序结构,观察到了流动失稳后发生双马蹄涡三维对并的现象, 大尺度结构呈较好的对称性.在流动演化后期, 大尺度结构逐次破碎形成小尺度结构, 混合层进入转捩末期,呈明显的不对称性.      

The effect of wall cooling on compressible Görtler vortices

It is known that in adiabatic boundary layer flow over a curved surface the detailed structure of the spanwise periodic Görtler vortex instability varies markedly over the range of spanwise wavelength. At short wavelengths the modes tend to be concentrated in a well-defined thin zone located within the boundary layer. As the vortex wavenumber diminishes so the region of vortex activity is first driven to the bounding wall but subsequently expands to cover the entire boundary layer at which stage the modes take on a principally inviscid form. At yet longer wavelengths the vortices are given by the solution of an interactive multi-deck structure which has some similarities with that for Tollmien–Schlichting waves.In this work we investigate how the application of wall cooling affects the above scenario. It is shown how cooling both restricts the range of mode types and gives rise to two new structures. The first, for moderate cooling and which relates to longer wavelengths, is interactive in nature. Here the viscous–inviscid interaction between an essentially inviscid Görtler problem, albeit for an effective basic flow which in its general form has a non-standard near-wall structure, and a viscous sublayer is provided by novel boundary conditions. Shorter wavelength vortices are largely unaffected by wall cooling unless this is quite severe. However when this degree of cooling is applied, the vortices take on a fully viscous form and are confined to a thin region next to the bounding wall wherein the basic flow assumes an analytic form. Numerical solutions are obtained and we provide evidence as to how the two new structures are related both to each other and to the previously known uncooled results.     

On the formation of the chain of ring-like vortices in a transitional boundary layer

One mechanism by which laminar flow becomes turbulence is through the instability of vortex interaction. The nonlinear evolution of the interactions between the Λ-vortex and the secondary closed vortex has been investigated. This nonlinear instability process leads to some fundamental changes in the topology of flows. Experimental observations are presented here showing the formation of a chain of ring-like vortices, which generate high-frequency spikes on time traces in a transitional boundary layer. Received: 13 March 2000/Accepted: 5 July 2000     

Receptivity of the Blunt-Leading-Edge Plate Boundary Layer to Unsteady Vortex Perturbations

The response of the boundary layer on a plate with a blunt leading edge to frozen-in vortex perturbations whose vorticity is normal to the plate surface is found. It is shown that these vortices generate an inhomogeneity of the streamwise velocity component in the boundary layer. This inhomogeneity is analogous to the streaky structure developing as the degree of free-stream turbulence increases. The dependence of the amplitude and shape of the boundary layer inhomogeneity on the distance from the leading edge, the streamwise and spanwise scales, and other parameters is found for periodic and local initial perturbations. It is shown that the receptivity of the boundary layer decreases with increase in the frequency and with decrease in the streamwise perturbation scale.     

Görtler vortices in Falkner–Skan flows with suction and blowing

In this paper, we use nonlinear calculations to study curved boundary‐layer flows with pressure gradients and self‐similar suction or blowing. For an accelerated outer flow, stabilization occurs in the linear region while the saturation amplitude of vortices is larger than for flows with a decelerating outer flow. The combined effects of boundary‐layer suction and a favourable pressure gradient can give a significant stabilization of the flow. Streamwise vortices can be amplified on both concave and convex walls for decelerated Falkner–Skan flow with an overshoot in the velocity profile. The disturbance amplitude is generally lower far downstream compared with profiles without overshoot. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

分区Lagrangian涡方法及瞬时起动圆柱初期流动的模拟

本文提出一种分区Lagrangian涡方法:将附着流动和分离流动分开处理,在附着区解边界层方层,只在分离区用涡方法解N-S方程。由于将尺度不同的区域分开了,求解分离区流动的涡方法中,每一时间步上物面引出的涡数在较小程度上依赖于Re数。这样,求解高Re数流动时,流场内的涡数,因而计算机内存和时间得以大大减小。用该方法计算了瞬时起动圆柱的初期流动,与实验结果比较相符很好。     

PIV study of large-scale flow organisation in slot jets

The paper reports on particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements in turbulent slot jets bounded by two solid walls with the separation distance smaller than the jet width (5–40%). In the far-field such jets are known to manifest features of quasi-two dimensional, two component turbulence. Stereoscopic and tomographic PIV systems were used to analyse local flows. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) was applied to extract coherent modes of the velocity fluctuations. The measurements were performed both in the initial region close to the nozzle exit and in the far fields of the developed turbulent slot jets for Re ⩾ 10,000. A POD analysis in the initial region indicates a correlation between quasi-2D vortices rolled-up in the shear layer and local flows in cross-stream planes. While the near-field turbulence shows full 3D features, the wall-normal velocity fluctuations day out gradually due to strong wall-damping resulting in an almost two-component turbulence. On the other hand, the longitudinal vortex rolls take over to act as the main agents in wall-normal and spanwise mixing and momentum transfer. The quantitative analysis indicates that the jet meandering amplitude was aperiodically modulated when arrangement of the large-scale quasi-2D vortices changed between asymmetric and symmetric pattern relatively to the jet axis. The paper shows that the dynamics of turbulent slot jets are more complex than those of 2D, plane and rectangular 3D jets. In particular, the detected secondary longitudinal vortex filaments and meandering modulation is expected to be important for turbulent transport and mixing in slot jets. This issue requires further investigations.     

Coherent Structures Formation During Wake-Boundary Layer Interaction on a LP Turbine Blade

Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements have been analyzed in order to characterize the dynamics of coherent structures (eddies and streaks) within the suction side boundary layer of a low pressure turbine cascade perturbed by impinging wakes. To this end, the instantaneous flow fields at low Reynolds number and elevated free-stream turbulence intensity level (simulating the real condition of the blade row within the engine) were investigated in two orthogonal planes (a blade-to-blade and a wall-parallel plane). Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) has been employed to filter the instantaneous flow maps allowing a better visualization of the structures involved in the transition process of the boundary layer. For the unsteady case properly selected POD modes have been also used to sort the instantaneous PIV images in the wake passage period. This procedure allows computing phase-averaged data and visualizing structures size and intensity in the different parts of the boundary layer during the different wake passage phases. The contributions to the whole shear stress due to the largest spanwise oriented scales at the leading and trailing boundaries of the wake-jet structures and those associated with streaky structures observed in the bulk of the wake are discussed. Instantaneous images in the wall-parallel plane are filtered with POD and they allow us to further highlight the occurrence of low and high speed traveling streaks (Klebanoff mode). The periodic advection along the suction side of the high turbulent content regions carried by the wakes anticipates both formation and sinuous instability of the streaks inside the boundary layer as compared with the steady case. The dynamics driving the breakdown of the streaks and the consequent formation of nuclei with high wall-normal vorticity have been found to be almost the same in the steady and the unsteady cases. Auto-correlation of the instantaneous images are also presented in order to highlight analogies and differences in the size and spacing of streaks in the two cases. These results are also compared with the available literature concerning simplified geometries (i.e flat plate) operating under steady inflow.     

Formation and evolution of vortex rings induced by interactions between shock waves and a low-density bubble

The deformation and instability of a low-density spherical bubble induced by an incident and its reflected shock waves are studied by using the large eddy simulation method. The computational model is firstly validated by experimental results from the literature and is further used to examine the effect of incident shock wave strength on the formations and three-dimensional evolutions of the vortex rings. For the weak shock wave case (Ma?=?1.24), the baroclinic effect induced by the reflected shock wave is the key mechanism for the formation of new vortex rings. The vortex rings not only move due to the self-induced effect and the flow field velocity, but also generate azimuthal instability due to the pressure disturbance. For the strong shock wave case (Ma?=?2.2), a boundary layer is formed adjacent to the end wall owing to the approach of vortex ring, and unsteady separation of the boundary layer near the wall results in the ejection and formation of new vortex rings. These vortex rings interact in the vicinity of the end wall and finally collapse to a complicated vortex structure via azimuthal instability. For both shock wave strength cases, the evolutions of vortex rings due to the instability lead to the formation of the complicated structure dominated by the small-scale streamwise vortices.     

BY-PASS MECHANISM OF TRANSITION TO TURBULENCE

The by-pass mechanism of transition for a wall-bounded shear layer is explained for the case when an infinite row of convecting vortices migrate over a boundary layer at a specific speed range. Such a mechanism is important for noisy flows over bluff bodies, flows inside turbomachinery and flows over helicopter rotor blades. By solving the Navier–Stokes equation, it is shown that this by-pass transition is a consequence of vortices migrating at convection speeds that are significantly lower than the free-stream speed. This situation is commonly found in flows that are affected by the presence of periodic wakes. Whenever the speed of migrating vortices is in a certain critical range, there is a local instability of the underlying shear layer with a very high-growth rate as compared to the growth of pure Tollmien–Schlichting waves created by wall excitation. The above interpretation is supported by solving the linearized and full Navier–Stokes equation for disturbance quantities under the parallel flow approximation in two dimensions. Various ramifications of such a by-pass route of transition are discussed in this paper.     

Subcritical spatial transition of swept Hiemenz flow

It is known from experimental investigations that the leading-edge boundary layer of a swept wing exhibits transition to turbulence at subcritical Reynolds numbers, i.e. at Reynolds numbers which lie below the critical Reynolds number predicted by linear stability theory. In the present work, we investigate this subcritical transition process by direct numerical simulations of a swept Hiemenz flow in a spatial setting. The laminar base flow is perturbed upstream by a pair of stationary counter-rotating vortex-like disturbances. This perturbation generates high- and low-speed streaks by a non-modal growth mechanism. Further downstream, these streaky structures exhibit a strong instability to secondary perturbations which leads to a breakdown to turbulence.The observed transition mechanism has strong similarities to by-pass transition mechanisms found for two-dimensional boundary layers. It can be shown that transition strongly depends on the amplitude of the primary perturbation as well as on the frequency of the secondary perturbation.     

Effect of compressibility on the development of taylor-görtler vortices at high reynolds numbers

The development of disturbances in viscous compressible flows caused by centrifugal forces is investigated. On the basis of an asymptotic analysis of the Navier-Stokes equations at high Reynolds and Görtler numbers, mathematical models describing the development of three-dimensional unstable vortex structures are constructed. Various linear boundary-value problems are analytically solved. One type of boundary layer instability is that generated by a centrifugal force field. This kind of instability can manifest itself in the flow past concave surfaces or, in general, in flows with streamlines of positive curvature [1, 2]. Instability-driven Görtler vortices have been the subject of much research which was reviewed, for example, in [2–4].     

三维扰动波的非平行边界层稳定性研究

导出了三维扰动波的原始变量形式的抛物化稳定性方程（PSE）,研究了三维空间模态TS波的非平行边界层稳定性问题.采用了法向四阶紧致格式,以提高计算精度.通过给出不会导致奇性的坐标变换、修改外边界条件以及克服平行流初始值的瞬态影响和推进步长的限制,保证了计算的数值稳定.用补全元素带状矩阵法求解块三对角矩阵,大大提高了速度.计算结果清楚地显示了三维扰动波的演化过程和非平行性对边界层稳定性的影响,特别是,观察到非平行性对三维扰动波的影响,有时会使其稳定性出现逆转的现象.还研究了逆压梯度的作用.算例的结果与其他结果符合良好.     

Velocity statistics and flow structures observed in bypass transition using stereo PTV

It is known from smoke visualizations that in a transitional boundary layer subjected to free-stream turbulence, streaks appear and eventually break down to turbulence after wavy motions. In order to observe the streaky structures directly, a stereo particle-tracking velocimetry system using hydrogen bubbles in a water channel has been developed and validated against laser Doppler velocimetry. Mean flow statistics show good agreement with previous results. With the developed measurement system, the instantaneous spanwise distribution of the streamwise and wall-normal velocities can be measured fast enough to resolve the time development of the streaky structures. Measurements of instantaneous spanwise distributions of the streamwise and wall-normal velocity disturbances show strong negative correlation between the wall-normal and streamwise velocities in the streaks. Published online: 19 November 2002