The Effect of Free-Stream Turbulence on Turbulent Boundary Layers

Mean flow measurements, and some turbulence measurements, have been made in a two-dimensional incompressible constant-pressure (“flat plate”) turbulent boundary layer beneath a nearly homogeneous nearly-isotropic (grid-generated) turbulent free stream. An appreciably nonlinear dependence of the skin-friction coefficient and other boundary layer parameters on rms free-stream turbulence intensity has been confirmed. A much wider range of free-stream length scales has been studied than in previous work, and the results (which agree well with previous data where they overlap) clearly indicate the large effect of free-stream length scale on the response of the boundary layer. The decrease of free-stream turbulence effect with increasing length scale is at least partly attributable to simple reduction of normal-component velocity fluctuations by the solid surface; this would not be the case in free shear layers.