The thick, turbulent boundary layer on a cylinder: Mean and fluctuating velocities

The mean and fluctuating velocities in a turbulent boundary layer on a cylinder have been experimentally characterized for the case where the boundary layer is thick compared to the radius of transverse curvature. The mean velocity measurements suggest a mixed scaling for the ‘‘log law of the wall’’ using the wall coordinate yUτ/ν and the ratio of the local boundary layer thickness to the radius of the cylinder δ/a. A relation for the slope and intercept of the log law of the wall as functions of δ/a based on empirical results and simple analysis is presented. Measurements of the Reynolds stress for δ/a of order 10 show that the Reynolds stress drops off much more quickly with distance from the wall than for a turbulent boundary layer on a flat plate. Both the Reynolds stress data and the turbulent intensity in the mean flow direction data are functions of the inverse radial distance from the center of the cylinder.