Large-scale motion in the intermittent region of a turbulent boundary layer

Abstract

The outer intermittent region of a fully developed turbulent boundary layer with zero pressure gradient was extensively explored in the hope of shedding some light on the shape and motion of the interface separating the turbulent and non-turbulent regions as well as on the nature of the related large-scale eddies within the turbulent regime. Novel measuring techniques were devised, such as conditional sampling and conditional averaging, and others were turned to new uses, such as reorganizing in map form the space-time auto- and cross-correlation data involving both the U and V velocity components as well as I , the intermittency function. On the basis of the new experimental results, a conceptual model for the development of the interface and for the entrainment of new fluid is proposed.