On the logarithmic region in wall turbulence

Abstract Considerable discussion over the past few years has been devoted to the question of whether the logarithmic region in wall turbulence is indeed universal. Here, we analyse recent experimental data in the Reynolds number range of nominally 2 10^4 Re 6 10^5 for boundary layers, pipe flow and the atmospheric surface layer, and show that, within experimental uncertainty, the data support the existence of a universal logarithmic region. The results support the theory of Townsend (The Structure of Turbulent Shear Flow, Vol. 2, 1976) where, in the interior part of the inertial region, both the mean velocities and streamwise turbulence intensities follow logarithmic functions of distance from the wall.