Effects of Splitter Plates on Turbulent Quantities on a Boundary Layer Developing on a Flat Plate near the Trailing Edge

Abstract

An experimental investigation was made on a turbulent boundary layer near the trailing edge on a long flat plate with a blunt trailing edge. The flow was controlled by an additional splitter plate attached to the trailing edge along the wake center line. The length of the splitter plate, l, was varied from 0.3 to 3 times the trailing edge thickness, h. Measurement of fluctuating velocity was made under the freestream zero pressure gradient. Almost independent of the installation of the splitter plate, the turbulent intensity and the Reynolds shear stress in the inner layer decreased when approaching the trailing edge of the flat plate (x/h=0), compared with that in the fully-developed turbulent boundary layer under the zero pressure gradient. The only exception was the distribution at x/h=0 near the wall in the case without the splitter plate (l/h=0), where the degree of the decrease in urms/Ue was relatively small, and vrms/Ue and -uv / Ue2 were larger than those of the zero pressure gradient. The effect of l/h on turbulent quantities was shown just upstream of the trailing edge upon close comparison, and was classified into two groups: l/hl/h≧1. The tendency of the turbulent energy production terms approaching x/h=0 coincided with the decrease in the streamwise turbulent intensity and in the Reynolds shear stress.