Some Features Of Surface Pressure Fluctuations In Turbulent Boundary Layers With Zero And Favorable Pressure Gradients

Experiments have been conducted to measure the wall pressure fluctuations associated with artificially generated turbulent spots in a laminar boundary layer. The results show that both the rms wall pressure and the wall pressure spectra of turbulent spots are influenced by the local mean flow pressure gradient. The zero and favorable pressure gradient wall pressure data are in agreement with turbulent boundary layer results. However, the current spot data shows that, in the presence of an adverse pressure gradient, the spot's rms wall pressure is approximately 1.5-2.5 times larger than that found for the zero and favorable pressure gradient cases. These results are in general agreement with the adverse pressure gradient data of Huang and Hannan (1975). Additionally, the nearly constant magnitude of the spot's adverse pressure gradient wall pressure spectrum indicates a nearly even distributions of energy with frequency. Keywords: Turbulent boundary layer, Laminar boundary layer, Wall pressure fluctuations.

The low-turbulence subsonic wind tunnel was significantly modified so that turbulent boundary-layer pressure fluctuation measurements could be made with adequate signal-to-noise ratio over a wide frequency range. Measurements were made in a mild adverse and a mild favorable pressure gradient with natural transition occurring in the boundary layer. To make certain that the facility was operating correctly and to establish a basis for comparison, the zero-pressure gradient case was investigated. For this case, the spectral density, magnitude of the normalized longitudinal and lateral cross-spectral density functions, and convection velocity as a function of longitudinal separation and frequency were in excellent agreement with other experimenters. When comparison is made to the zero-pressure gradient in the same non-dimensionalized frequency band and at similar non-dimensionalized longitudinal spacings, the convection velocity ratio is higher in the favorable and lower in the adverse pressure gradients, primarily due to the change in shape of the mean velocity profile. The effect of an adverse pressure gradient on the non-dimensionalized spectral density is to increase the low-frequency content without influencing the high-frequency portion appreciably, when compared to the zero-pressure gradient case. (Author).