Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 June 2016
The subject of this paper is the effect of a disturbance to the turbulence structure of the flow on the reading of a Preston tube used to measure wall shear stress. Two kinds of disturbance have been studied experimentally, one caused by reattachment and the other by an abrupt change in wall roughness. The apparent wall shear stress measured by the Preston tube both in channel and boundary layer flows with these kinds of disturbance has been compared with the wall shear stress measured by a sublayer fence. The results give an idea of the magnitude of the error that is likely to arise when the Preston tube is used in a flow with disturbed turbulence structure.