On the streamwise evolution of turbulent boundary layers in arbitrary pressure gradients (Q4549845)

The paper deals with a new approach to the classic closure problem for turbulent boundary layer. The first section consists of a motivation for this work in conjunction with an extended closure scheme. The second one presents shear stress profiles given by the authors. The third section concerns the closure formulation for the approximate-equilibrium and quasi-equilibrium flows -- the closure scheme developed for calculating the streamwise evolution of turbulent boundary layer. The cases considered confine to flows which either in approximate equilibrium or in quasi-equilibrium, but their formulations break down for nonequilibrium flows. The fourth section presents a new formulation for the general non-equilibrium case where finite \(\xi\) values are taken into account, \(\xi= {U_1\over U_\tau} \delta_c{d\Pi\over dx}\), \(U_1\) being the local force-stream velocity, \(U_\tau\) the local friction velocity, \(\Pi\) the Cole's wake factor, and \(\delta_c\) the boundary layer thickness. The shear stress profile matching is used to optimize the Clauser pressure gradient parameter \(\beta\) and the parameter \(\xi\) for a fixed \(\Pi\) and \(S\) -- the skin friction parameter, and new evolution equations which govern the streamwise evolution of turbulent boundary layer are obtained by using the momentum integral equation, the momentum differential equations, the log law of the wall and law of the wake together with the definition of \(\beta\) and \(\xi\). In section five the authors explore the viability of employing the attached eddy hypothesis which was used for forming a semi-theoretical relation between the asymptotic value \(\beta_a\) and \(\Pi\), for \(\xi_a= 0\), where \(\xi_a\) represents the asymptotic value of \(\xi\). The sixth section concerns applications to experiments: closure equation, non-autonomous cases, autonomous cases, and sink flow turbulent boundary layer. The last section summarizes principal properties of the proposed closure scheme.