Some aspects of strongly heated turbulent boundary layer flow

Rayleigh scattering and laser Doppler velocimetry were used to study density and velocity statistics in a strongly heated turbulent boundary layer with free stream velocity U∞ = 19 m/sec and wall temperature Tw = 1100 °K. Mean and rms fluctuation profiles of density and velocity were found to be self-preserving, and the velocity profiles were not significantly affected by wall heating. Streamwise velocity profiles, and mean temperature profiles deduced from density data were compared with Townsend’s self-preserving analysis. It was found that wall heating caused a reduction in Reynolds stress within the thermal layer. This phenomenon was explained with reference to the thermal layer structures observed in high speed schlieren movies.