Turbulent Heat Transport in a Perturbed Channel Flow

Abstract

The recovering boundary layer downstream of a separation bubble is known to have a highly perturbed turbulence structure which creates difficulty for turbulence models. The present experiment addressed the effect of this perturbed structure on turbulent heat transport. The turbulent diffusion of heat downstream of a heated wire was measured in a perturbed channel flow and compared to that in a simple, fully developed channel flow. The turbulent diffusivity of heat was found to be more than 20 times larger in the perturbed flow. The turbulent Prandtl number increased to 1.7, showing that the turbulent eddy viscosity was affected even more strongly than the eddy thermal diffusivity. This result corroborates previous work showing that boundary layer disturbances generally have a stronger effect on the eddy viscosity, rendering prescribed turbulent Prandtl number models ineffective in perturbed flows.