Turbulent flow over a long flat plate with uniform roughness

Abstract

For turbulent boundary-layer flow under a uniform freestream speed U∞ over a plate of length L, covered with uniform roughness of nominal sand-grain scale k_s, the physical behaviors underlying two distinguished limits at large Re_L≡U∞L/ν are explored: the fully rough wall flow where k_s/L is fixed and the long-plate limit where Re_k≡U∞k_s/ν is fixed. For the fully rough limit it is shown that not only is the drag coefficient C_D independent of Re_L but that a universal skin-friction coefficient C_f and normalized boundary-layer thickness δ/k_s can be found that depends only on ks_/x, where x is the downstream distance. In the long-plate limit, it is shown that the flow becomes asymptotically smooth at huge Re_L at a rate that depends on Re_k. Comparisons with wind-tunnel and field data are made.