High Reynolds number effects in wall turbulence

Abstract

A review of recent advances in the study of high Reynolds number turbulent boundary layers is given. The emergent regime of very large-scale structures in the logarithmic region and their subsequent influence on the near-wall cycle challenges many of the previously held assumptions regarding scaling of turbulent boundary layers at high Reynolds numbers. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the superimposition of large-scale energy onto the near-wall cycle, together with an interaction well described by an amplitude modulation effect. Both phenomena are shown to increase in magnitude (as compared to viscous-scaled events) as Reynolds number increases. These observations lead to a possible model for a statistically representative near-wall velocity signal (giving accurate energy spectra) based on a given filtered velocity signal from the log region of a high Reynolds number turbulent flow.