Bharathram Ganapathisubramani

Characteristics of vortex packets in turbulent boundary layers

Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure all three instantaneous components of the velocity field in streamwise–spanwise planes of a turbulent boundary layer at Re τ =1060 ( Re θ =2500). Datasets were obtained in the logarithmic layer and beyond. The vector fields in the log layer ( z + =92 and 150) revealed signatures of vortex packets similar to those proposed by Adrian and co-workers in their PIV experiments. Groups of legs of hairpin vortices appeared to be coherently arranged in the streamwise direction. These regions also generated substantial Reynolds shear stress, sometimes as high as 40 times − uw . A feature extraction algorithm was developed to automate the identification and characterization of these packets of hairpin vortices. Identified patches contributed 28% to − uw while occupying only 4% of the total area at z + =92. At z + =150, these patches occupied 4.5% of the total area while contributing 25% to − uw . Beyond the log layer ( z + =198 and 530), the spatial organization into packets is seen to break down.

Effects of upstream boundary layer on the unsteadiness of shock-induced separation

The relationship between the upstream boundary layer and the low-frequency, large-scale unsteadiness of the separated flow in a Mach 2 compression ramp interaction is investigated by performing wide-field particle image velocimetry (PIV) and planar laser scattering (PLS) measurements in streamwise–spanwise planes. Planar laser scattering measurements in the upstream boundary layer indicate the presence of spanwise strips of elongated regions of uniform momentum with lengths greater than 40?. These long coherent structures have been observed in a Mach 2 supersonic boundary layer (Ganapathisubramani, Clemens & Dolling 2006) and they exhibit strong similarities to those that have been found in incompressible boundary layers (Tomkins & Adrian 2003; Ganapathisubramani, Longmire & Marusic 2003). At a wall-normal location of y/?=0.2, the inferred instantaneous separation line of the separation region is found to oscillate between x/?=?3 and ?1 (where x/?=0 is the ramp corner). The instantaneous spanwise separation line is found to respond to the elongated regions of uniform momentum. It is shown that high- and low-momentum regions are correlated with smaller and larger size of the separation region, respectively. Furthermore, the instantaneous separation line exhibits large-scale undulations that conform to the low- and high-speed regions in the upstream boundary layer. The low-frequency unsteadiness of the separation region/shock foot observed in numerous previous studies can be explained by a turbulent mechanism that includes these elongated regions of uniform momentum

Investigation of large-scale coherence in a turbulent boundary layer using two-point correlations

Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements are made in streamwise–spanwise and inclined cross-stream planes (inclined at

Large-scale motions in a supersonic turbulent boundary layer

45^\circ

Low-frequency dynamics of shock-induced separation in a compression ramp interaction

and

Three-dimensional conditional structure of a high-Reynolds-number turbulent boundary layer

135^\circ

Experimental investigation of vortex properties in a turbulent boundary layer

to the principal flow direction) of a turbulent boundary layer at moderate Reynolds number (

Effectively visualizing multi-valued flow data using color and texture

\hbox{\it Re}_\tau\,{\sim} 1100

Amplification of enstrophy in the far field of an axisymmetric turbulent jet

). Two-point spatial velocity correlations computed using the PIV data reveal results that are consistent with an earlier study in which packets of hairpin vortices were identified by a feature-detection algorithm in the log region, but not in the outer wake region. Both streamwise–streamwise (

Aeroacoustic performance of fractal spoilers

R_{\hbox{\scriptsize\it uu}}