Length and time scales of the near-surface axial velocity in a high Reynolds number turbulent boundary layer

Abstract

Reynolds number effects on relevant length and time scales in the near-wall region of a canonical turbulent boundary layer are investigated. Well resolved measurements in the atmospheric surface layer are compared with existing laboratory data to give a composite Reynolds number range spanning over three orders of magnitude. In the field experiments, a vertical rake of twenty single element hot-wires was used to measure the axial velocity, u, characteristics in the lower log layer region of the atmospheric surface layer that flows over Utah’s western desert. Only data acquired under conditions of near-neutral thermal stability are analyzed. The shape of the power spectra of u as a function of distance from the wall, y, and Reynolds number is investigated, with emphasis on the appropriate scaling parameters valid across different wavenumber, k, bands. In particular, distance from the wall is found to scale the region of the u spectra around ky = 1. The presence of a k −1 slope in the spectra is also found to correlate with the Reynolds number dependence in the peak of the root mean square u profile. In addition, Reynolds number trends in the profiles of the Taylor microscales, which represent intermediate length and time scales in the boundary layer, are shown to deviate from classical scaling.