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An idealised assessment of Townsend’s outer-layer similarity hypothesis for wall turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2014

D. Chung ,
J. P. Monty  and
A. Ooi
D. Chung*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
J. P. Monty
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
A. Ooi
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
*
†Email address for correspondence: daniel.chung@unimelb.edu.au
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Abstract

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent channel flow at the matched friction Reynolds number of 590, comparing the effect of no-slip versus shear-stress boundary conditions, reveal that the outer flow of wall turbulence, in accord with Townsend’s outer-layer similarity hypothesis, remains largely independent of the viscous sublayer. First- and second-order statistics, including spectra, agree closely from the buffer region out to the centre of the channel. Higher-order statistics also appear to obey the hypothesised similarity, although the influence of boundary conditions is more pronounced than in the lower-order statistics. The statistical agreement in the outer layer, in spite of the structural differences in the viscous sublayer, support Townsend’s idea that the primary effect of the wall is not the no-slip condition, but the impermeability condition imposed by a solid wall.

JFM classification

Turbulent Flows: Turbulent boundary layers Boundary Layers: Boundary layer structure Turbulent Flows: Turbulence simulation
Type
Rapids
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 742 , 10 March 2014 , R3
Copyright
© 2014 Cambridge University Press 

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