Coherent structures in turbulent boundary layers with adverse pressure gradients

Abstract

The coherent structures in turbulent boundary layers (TBLs) subjected to adverse pressure gradients (APGs) were investigated by analyzing a database of direct numerical simulations. The equilibrium adverse pressure gradient flows were established by using a power law free-stream distribution. The population trends of the spanwise vortices show that the outer regions of the APG TBLs are densely populated with hairpin-like vortices. These vortical structures induce low-momentum regions in the middle of the boundary layers, which result in an outer peak in the Reynolds shear stress. The 3-D features of the hairpin packets were deduced from their spatial characteristics in the spanwise-wall-normal plane. The conditionally averaged velocity fields show that there are counter-rotating v & w swirling motions that represent cross-sectional evidences of the packets. Moreover, two-point correlations and linear stochastic estimations were used to provide statistical information about the hairpin packet motions in the cross-stream planes of the APG TBLs.