Intense large-scale motions in zero and adverse pressure gradient turbulent boundary layers

Abstract

Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is used to study coherent structures in wall-bounded turbulent flows. The present study uses POD in turbulent boundary layers to determine the contributions of the intense large-scale motions (LSMs) to the Reynolds stresses. This study uses the 2C-2D PIV measurements of zero pressure gradient turbulent boundary layers (ZPG-TBL) at Re_{δ2} = 7750, and adverse pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer (APG-TBL) at β = 2.27 and Re_{δ2}= 16240, where Re_{δ2} is the momentum thickness based Reynolds number and β is the Clauser’s pressure gradient parameter. The measurements were obtained in the Laboratoire de Mécanique des Fluides de Lille (LMFL) High-Reynolds-Number (HRN) Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel, Lille, France. The snapshots of the flow field are segregated into those dominated by the intense and mild LSMs based on the intensity of the temporal coefficients of the first POD mode. The intense LSMs are further decomposed into high-momentum (HM) and low-momentum (LM) motions. The relative contributions of the HM motions to the Reynolds stresses are larger near the wall as compared to the LM motions. At the wall-normal distance of the displacement thickness (δ1), HM and LM motions have similar contributions. Beyond δ1, the LM motions have larger contributions with their peaks located closer to the displacement thickness height. This shows that in the presence of an APG, the turbulence activity is shifted closer to the displacement thickness height.