Vertical Coherence of Turbulence in the Atmospheric Surface Layer: Connecting the Hypotheses of Townsend and Davenport

Statistical descriptions of coherent flow motions in the atmospheric boundary layer have many applications in the wind engineering community. For instance, the dynamical characteristics of large-scale motions in wall-turbulence play an important role in predicting the dynamical loads on buildings, or the fluctuations in the power distribution across wind farms. Davenport (Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 1961, Vol. 372, 194-211) performed a seminal study on the subject and proposed a hypothesis that is still widely used to date. Here, we demonstrate how the empirical formulation of Davenport is consistent with the analysis of Baars et al. (Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2017, Vol. 823, R2) in the spirit of Townsend's attached-eddy hypothesis in wall turbulence. We further study stratification effects based on two-point measurements of atmospheric boundary-layer flow over the Utah salt flats. No self-similar scaling is observed in stable conditions, putting the application of Davenport's framework, as well as the attached eddy hypothesis, in question for this case. Data obtained under unstable conditions exhibit clear self-similar scaling and our analysis reveals a strong sensitivity of the statistical aspect ratio of coherent structures (defined as the ratio of streamwise and wall-normal extent) to the magnitude of the stability parameter

Wall-pressure--velocity coupling in high-Reynolds number wall-bounded turbulence

Wall-pressure fluctuations are a practically robust input for real-time control systems aimed at modifying wall-bounded turbulence. The scaling behaviour of the wall-pressure--velocity coupling requires investigation to properly design a controller with such input data, so that the controller can actuate upon the desired turbulent structures. A comprehensive database from direct numerical simulations of turbulent channel flow is used for this purpose, spanning a Reynolds-number range $Re_\tau \sim 550 - 5200$. A spectral analysis reveals that the streamwise velocity is most strongly coupled to the linear term of the wall-pressure, at a wall-scaling of $\lambda_x/y \approx 14$ (and $\lambda_x/y \approx 8.5$ for the wall-normal velocity). When extending the analysis to both homogeneous directions in $x$ and $y$, the peak-coherence is centred at $\lambda_x/\lambda_z \approx 2$ and $\lambda_x/\lambda_z \approx 1$ for $p_w$ and $u$, and $p_w$ and $v$, respectively. A stronger coherence is retrieved when the quadratic term of the wall-pressure is concerned, but there is only weak evidence for a wall-attached-eddy type of scaling. Experimental data are explored in the second part of this work: wall-pressure data are denoised and subsequently used for predicting the binary-state of the streamwise velocity fluctuations in the logarithmic region. A binary estimation accuracy of up to 72% can be achieved by including both the linear and quadratic terms of the wall-pressure. This study demonstrates that a controller for wall-bounded turbulence (solely relying on wall-pressure data) has merit in terms of a sufficient state estimation capability, even in the presence of significant facility noise

Inner-scaled Helmholtz resonators with grazing turbulent boundary layer flow

Response details are presented of small-scale Helmholtz resonators excited by grazing turbulent boundary layer flow. A particular focus lies on scaling of the resonance, in relation to the spatio-temporal characteristics of the near-wall velocity and wall-pressure fluctuations. Resonators are tuned to different portions of the inner-spectral peak of the boundary-layer wall-pressure spectrum, at a spatial scale of $\lambda_x^+ \approx 250$ (or temporal scale of $T^+ \approx 25$). Following this approach, small-scale resonators can be designed with neck-orifice diameters of minimum intrusiveness to the grazing flow. Here we inspect the TBL response by analysing velocity data obtained with hot-wire anemometry and particle image velocimetry measurements. This strategy follows the earlier work by Panton and Miller (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 526, 800, 1975) in which only the change in resonance frequency, due to the grazing flow turbulence, was examined. Single resonators are examined in a boundary layer flow at $Re_\tau \approx 2\,280$. Two neck-orifice diameters of $d^+ \approx 68$ and 102 are considered, and for each value of $d^+$ three different resonance frequencies are studied (targeting the spatial scale of $\lambda_x^+ \approx 250$, as well as sub- and super-wavelengths). Passive resonance only affects the streamwise velocity fluctuations in the region $y^+ \lesssim 25$, while the vertical velocity fluctuations are seen in a layer up to $y^+ \approx 100$. A narrow-band increase in streamwise turbulence kinetic energy at the resonance scale co-exists with a more than 20% attenuation of lower-frequency (larger scale) energy. Current findings inspire further developments of passive surfaces that utilize the concept of changing the local wall-impedance for boundary-layer flow control, using miniature resonators as a meta-unit

Time-Frequency Analysis of Rocket Nozzle Wall Pressures During Start-up Transients

Surveys of the fluctuating wall pressure were conducted on a sub-scale, thrust- optimized parabolic nozzle in order to develop a physical intuition for its Fourier-azimuthal mode behavior during fixed and transient start-up conditions. These unsteady signatures are driven by shock wave turbulent boundary layer interactions which depend on the nozzle pressure ratio and nozzle geometry. The focus however, is on the degree of similarity between the spectral footprints of these modes obtained from transient start-ups as opposed to a sequence of fixed nozzle pressure ratio conditions. For the latter, statistically converged spectra are computed using conventional Fourier analyses techniques, whereas the former are investigated by way of time-frequency analysis. The findings suggest that at low nozzle pressure ratios -- where the flow resides in a Free Shock Separation state -- strong spectral similarities occur between fixed and transient conditions. Conversely, at higher nozzle pressure ratios -- where the flow resides in Restricted Shock Separation -- stark differences are observed between the fixed and transient conditions and depends greatly on the ramping rate of the transient period. And so, it appears that an understanding of the dynamics during transient start-up conditions cannot be furnished by a way of fixed flow analysis

Density Field Reconstruction of an Overexpanded Supersonic Jet using Tomographic Background-Oriented Schlieren

A Tomographic Background-Oriented Schlieren (TBOS) technique is developed to aid in the visualization of compressible flows. An experimental setup was devised around a sub-scale rocket nozzle, in which four cameras were set up in a circular configuration with 30{\deg} angular spacing in azimuth. Measurements were taken of the overexpanded supersonic jet plume at various nozzle pressure ratios (NPR), corresponding to different flow regimes during the start-up and shut-down of rocket nozzles. Measurements were also performed for different camera parameters using different exposure times and f-stops in order to study the effect of measurement accuracy. Density gradients and subsequently two-dimensional line-of-sight integrated density fields for each of the camera projections are recovered from the index of refraction field by solving a Poisson equation. The results of this stage are then used to reconstruct two-dimensional slices of the (time-averaged) density field using a tomographic reconstruction algorithm employing the filtered back-projection and the simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique. By stacking these two-dimensional slices, the (quasi-) three-dimensional density field is obtained. The accuracy of the implemented method with a relatively low number of sparse cameras is briefly assessed and basic flow features are extracted such as the shock spacing in the overexpanded jet plume

Quantifying inner-outer interactions in non-canonical wall-bounded flows

We investigate the underlying physics behind the change in amplitude modulation coefficient in non-canonical wall-bounded flows in the framework of the inner-outer interaction model (IOIM) (Baars et al., Phys. Rev. Fluids 1 (5), 054406). The IOIM captures the amplitude modulation effect, and here we focus on extending the model to non-canonical flows. An analytical relationship between the amplitude modulation coefficient and IOIM parameters is derived, which is shown to capture the increasing trend of the amplitude modulation coefficient with an increasing Reynolds number in a smooth-wall dataset. This relationship is then applied to classify and interpret the non-canonical turbulent boundary layer results reported in previous works. We further present the case study of a turbulent boundary layer after a rough-to-smooth change. Both single-probe and two-probe hotwire measurements are performed to acquire streamwise velocity time series in the recovering flow on the downstream smooth wall. An increased coherence between the large-scale motions and the small-scale envelope in the near-wall region is attributed to the stronger footprints of the over-energetic large-scale motions in the outer layer, whereas the near-wall cycle and its amplitude sensitivity to the superposed structures are similar to that of a canonical smooth-wall flow. These results indicate that the rough-wall structures above the internal layer interact with the near-wall cycle in a similar manner as the increasingly energetic structures in a high-Reynolds number smooth-wall boundary layer

Opposition flow control for reducing skin-friction drag of a turbulent boundary layer

This work explores the dynamic response of a turbulent boundary layer to large-scale reactive opposition control, at a friction Reynolds number of $Re_\tau \approx 2\,240$. A hot-film is employed as the input sensor, capturing large-scale fluctuations in the wall-shear stress, and actuation is performed with a single on/off wall-normal blowing jet positioned $2.4\delta$ downstream of the input sensor, operating with an exit velocity of $v_{\rm j} = 0.4U_\infty$. Our control efforts follow the work by Abbassi et al. [Int. J. Heat Fluid Fl. 67, 2017], but includes a control-calibration experiment and a performance assessment using PIV- and PTV-based flow field analyses. The controller targets large-scale high-speed zones when operating in ``opposing" mode and low-speed zones in the ``reinforcing" mode. An energy-attenuation of about 40% is observed for the opposing control mode in the frequency band corresponding to the passage of large-scale motions. This proves the effectiveness of the control in targeting large-scale motions, since an energy-intensification of roughly 45% occurs for the reinforcing control mode instead. Skin friction coefficients are inferred from PTV data to yield a direct measurement of the wall-shear stress. Results indicate that the opposing control logic can lower the wall-shear stress by about 3% with respect to a desynchronised control strategy, and by roughly 10% with respect to the uncontrolled flow. A FIK-decomposition of the skin-friction coefficient was performed, revealing that the off-the-wall turbulence follows a consistent trend with the PTV-based wall-shear stress measurements, although biased by an increased shear in the wake of the boundary layer given the formation of a plume due to the jet-in-crossflow actuation

Wall Pressure Unsteadiness and Side Loads in Overexpanded Rocket Nozzles

Surveys of both the static and dynamic wall pressure signatures on the interior surface of a sub-scale, cold-flow and thrust optimized parabolic nozzle are conducted during fixed nozzle pressure ratios corresponding to FSS and RSS states. The motive is to develop a better understanding for the sources of off-axis loads during the transient start-up of overexpanded rocket nozzles. During FSS state, pressure spectra reveal frequency content resembling SWTBLI. Presumably, when the internal flow is in RSS state, separation bubbles are trapped by shocks and expansion waves; interactions between the separated flow regions and the waves produce asymmetric pressure distributions. An analysis of the azimuthal modes reveals how the breathing mode encompasses most of the resolved energy and that the side load inducing mode is coherent with the response moment measured by strain gauges mounted upstream of the nozzle on a flexible tube. Finally, the unsteady pressure is locally more energetic during RSS, albeit direct measurements of the response moments indicate higher side load activity when in FSS state. It is postulated that these discrepancies are attributed to cancellation effects between annular separation bubbles