Forced mixing in boundary layers

Abstract

The effect of increasing the rate of mixing in turbulent boundary layers in a region of adverse pressure gradient has been investigated experimentally. Only the two-dimensional case was considered. The boundary layer was formed on a flat wall in a special wind tunnel in which a variety of adverse pressure gradients could be obtained. Speeds were low enough to justify the neglect of compressibility. The main objective was to compare the effect of increasing the rate of mixing with the effect of reducing the pressure gradient on boundary-layer development and separation. A Variety of mixing schemes was tried, all of them involving fixed devices arranged in a row on the surface in the region of rising pressure. While these differed considerably in effectiveness, they had a generally similar effect on the flow; and, except for effects arising from changes in displacement and momentum thickness introduced at the devices, their effect on the layer was basically equivalent to that of a decrease in pressure gradient. Apart from forced mixing, the shape of the pressure distribution was found to have a significant effect on displacement and momentum thickness, these being minimized and the wall distance decreased for a given pressure rise by a distribution with an initially steep and progressively decreasing gradient.