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Growth and breakdown of low-speed streaks leading to wall turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2007

MASAHITO ASAI ,
YASUFUMI KONISHI ,
YUKI OIZUMI  and
MICHIO NISHIOKA
MASAHITO ASAI
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Asahigaoka 6-6, Hino, Tokyo 191-0065, Japan
YASUFUMI KONISHI
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology, Asahigaoka 6-6, Hino, Tokyo 191-0065, Japan
YUKI OIZUMI
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology, Asahigaoka 6-6, Hino, Tokyo 191-0065, Japan
MICHIO NISHIOKA
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
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Abstract

Two-dimensional local wall suction is applied to a fully developed turbulent boundary layer such that near-wall turbulence structures are completely sucked out, but most of the turbulent vortices in the original outer layer can survive the suction and cause the resulting laminar flow to undergo re-transition. This enables us to observe and clarify the whole process by which the suction-surviving strong vortical motions give rise to near-wall low-speed streaks and eventually generate wall turbulence. Hot-wire and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements show that low-frequency velocity fluctuations, which are markedly suppressed near the wall by the local wall suction, soon start to grow downstream of the suction. The growth of low-frequency fluctuations is algebraic. This characterizes the streak growth caused by the suction-surviving turbulent vortices. The low-speed streaks obtain almost the same spanwise spacing as that of the original turbulent boundary layer without the suction even in the initial stage of the streak development. This indicates that the suction-surviving turbulent vortices are efficient in exciting the necessary ingredients for the wall turbulence, namely, low-speed streaks of the correct scale. After attaining near-saturation, the low-speed streaks soon undergo sinuous instability to lead to re-transition. Flow visualization shows that the streak instability and its subsequent breakdown occur at random in space and time in spite of the spanwise arrangement of streaks being almost periodic. Even under the high-intensity turbulence conditions, the sinuous instability amplifies disturbances of almost the same wavelength as predicted from the linear stability theory, though the actual growth is in the form of a wave packet with not more than two waves. It should be emphasized that the mean velocity develops the log-law profile as the streak breakdown proceeds. The transient growth and eventual breakdown of low-speed streaks are also discussed in connection with the critical condition for the wall-turbulence generation.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 586 , 10 September 2007 , pp. 371 - 396
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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