Non-linear interactions in a boundary layer developing over an array of cubes using stochastic estimation

In the present work, a boundary layer developing over a rough-wall consisting of staggered cubes with a plan area packing density, λp = 25%, is studied within a wind tunnel using combined particle image velocimetry and hot-wire anemometry to investigate the non-linear interactions between large-scale momentum regions and small-scale structures induced by the presence of the roughness. Due to the highly turbulent nature of the roughness sub-layer and measurement equipment limitations, temporally resolved flow measurements are not feasible, making the conventional filtering methods used for triple decomposition unsuitable for the present work. Thus, multi-time delay linear stochastic estimation is used to decompose the flow into large-scales and small-scales. Analysis of the scale-decomposed skewness of the turbulent velocity (u′) shows a significant contribution of the non-linear term uL′uS′2¯, which represents the influence of the large-scales (uL′) onto the small-scales (uS′). It is shown that this non-linear influence of the large-scale momentum regions occurs with all three components of velocity in a similar manner. Finally, through two-point spatio-temporal correlation analysis, it is shown quantitatively that large-scale momentum regions influence small-scale structures throughout the boundary layer through a non-linear top-down mechanism.