Turbulent boundary layers under adverse pressure gradients are studied using well-resolved large-eddy simulations (LES) with the goal of assessing the influence of the streamwise pressure-gradient development. Near-equilibrium boundary layers were characterized through the Clauser pressure-gradient parameter $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$. In order to fulfil the near-equilibrium conditions, the free stream velocity was prescribed such that it followed a power-law distribution. The turbulence statistics pertaining to cases with a constant value of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ (extending up to approximately 40 boundary-layer thicknesses) were compared with cases with non-constant $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ distributions at matched values of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ and friction Reynolds number $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}$. An additional case at matched Reynolds number based on displacement thickness $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}^{\ast }}$ was also considered. It was noticed that non-constant $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ cases appear to approach the conditions of equivalent constant $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ cases after long streamwise distances (approximately 7 boundary-layer thicknesses). The relevance of the constant $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ cases lies in the fact that they define a ‘canonical’ state of the boundary layer, uniquely characterized by $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ and $Re$. The investigations on the flat plate were extended to the flow around a wing section overlapping in terms of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ and $Re$. Comparisons with the flat-plate cases at matched values of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ and $Re$ revealed that the different development history of the turbulent boundary layer on the wing section leads to a less pronounced wake in the mean velocity as well as a weaker second peak in the Reynolds stresses. This is due to the weaker accumulated effect of the $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}$ history. Furthermore, a scaling law suggested by Kitsios et al. (Intl J. Heat Fluid Flow, vol. 61, 2016, pp. 129–136), proposing the edge velocity and the displacement thickness as scaling parameters, was tested on two constant-pressure-gradient parameter cases. The mean velocity and Reynolds-stress profiles were found to be dependent on the downstream development. The present work is the first step towards assessing history effects in adverse-pressure-gradient turbulent boundary layers and highlights the fact that the values of the Clauser pressure-gradient parameter and the Reynolds number are not sufficient to characterize the state of the boundary layer.
In the present work, we analyze three commonly used methods to determine the edge of pressure gradient turbulent boundary layers: two based on composite profiles, the one by Chauhan et al. [“Criteria for assessing experiments in zero pressure gradient boundary layers,” Fluid Dyn. Res. 41, 021404 (2009)] and the one by Nickels [“Inner scaling for wall-bounded flows subject to large pressure gradients,” J. Fluid Mech. 521, 217–239 (2004)], and the other one based on the condition of vanishing mean velocity gradient. Additionally, a new method is introduced based on the diagnostic plot concept by Alfredsson et al. [“A new scaling for the streamwise turbulence intensity in wall-bounded turbulent flows and what it tells us about the ‘outer’ peak,” Phys. Fluids 23, 041702 (2011)]. The boundary layers developing over the suction and pressure sides of a NACA4412 wing section, extracted from a direct numerical simulation at chord Reynolds number Rec = 400 000, are used as the test case, besides other numerical and experimental data from favorable, zero, and adverse pressure-gradient flat-plate turbulent boundary layers. We find that all the methods produce robust results with mild or moderate pressure gradients, although the composite-profile techniques require data preparation, including initial estimations of fitting parameters and data truncation. Stronger pressure gradients (with a Rotta–Clauser pressure-gradient parameter β larger than around 7) lead to inconsistent results in all the techniques except the diagnostic plot. This method also has the advantage of providing an objective way of defining the point where the mean streamwise velocity is 99% of the edge velocity and shows consistent results in a wide range of pressure gradient conditions, as well as flow histories. Collapse of intermittency factors obtained from a wide range of pressure-gradient and Re conditions on the wing further highlights the robustness of the diagnostic plot method to determine the boundary layer thickness (equivalent to δ99) and the edge velocity in pressure gradient turbulent boundary layers.
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