Experimental study on onset turbulence in a flat-plate boundary layer

Abstract

A wind tunnel experiment was performed to investigate the suitable conditions in which a localized turbulent region can easily be generated in a flat-plate boundary layer. An artificial disturbance of zero-mass flux was introduced upstream using a combination of a short-duration jet and suctions to prepare a potentially unstable environment. The disturbed region by itself decayed downstream. Another jet was then ejected downstream at several different timings and two different spanwise locations relative to the passage of the locally disturbed region to promote transition to turbulence. Although the jet was too weak to trigger the turbulence transition by itself, an isolated turbulent region, the so-called turbulent spot, was generated when ejected against the disturbed region. The optimum conditions were found when the jet was ejected between the high- and low-speed areas of the convecting unstable region.

Keywords

• boundary layer
• local unstable region
• short-duration jet
• onset of turbulence
• turbulent spot