Curvature and pressure-gradient effects on a small-defect wake

Abstract

A fully developed two-dimensional turbulent wake was deflected by an airfoil-like thin plate placed at small angles in the external flow. The response of the mean-flow and turbulence properties of the wake to the ‘mild’ pressure gradient and the ‘mild’ streamline curvature caused by the deflection is studied. Owing to the small defect velocity, the extra strain rates are large compared with the main shear strain and the Reynolds stresses are strongly influenced by both the pressure gradient and the streamline curvature. The defect velocity relative to an appropriately chosen ‘potential-flow velocity’, and the mean vorticity, however, are not as strongly influenced by the curvature. Changes in the magnitudes of the Reynolds-stress components are much larger than would be caused by the simple rotation of coordinates aligned with the wake path. Most turbulence-model parameters are influenced significantly, while some pure turbulence parameters, such as the Taylor microscale, are relatively uninfluenced. The rapid and lagged responses are apparent and the terms in the transport equation for turbulent kinetic energy indicate that the response of the production terms is almost instantaneous, while the diffusion and dissipation terms are delayed.