Experimental measurements of the mean velocity profiles produced by axially symmetric turbulent boundary layers on cylinders of various diameters are described. The profile measurements were made with very small hot wires developed for this investigation. Measurements of the wall shear stress on cylinders ranging from 0.02 to 2.0 in. in diameter are also reported. In the boundary layer on cylinders, well-defined regions exist in which the two-dimensional law of the wall and a three-dimensional wake law are valid. There was no evidence that the boundary layer was not fully turbulent even on the cylinders of smallest diameter. Measurements of wall pressure fluctuations beneath the boundary layer on a 1 in. diameter cylinder are also described. The results were much the same as those previously reported by Willmarth & Yang (1970) for a 3 in. diameter cylinder. The only difference was the discovery that the wall pressure was correlated in the transverse direction approximately half-way around the cylinder. This was not true on the 3 in. diameter cylinder.

The small-scale structure of the streamwise velocity fluctuations in the wall region of a turbulent boundary layer is examined in a new wind-tunnel facility using hot-wires smaller than any previously constructed (typical dimensions: l = 25 μm, d = 0.5 μm). In the boundary layer in which the measurements were made, the ratio of the hot-wire length to the viscous length is 0.3. The turbulent intensity measured with the small hot wires is larger than that measured with longer wires owing to the better spatial resolution of the small wires. The velocity fluctuations measured by the small hot wires are also analysed to determine the burst frequency at two Reynolds numbers and at various distances from the wall. The dimensionless burst frequency does not depend on the Reynolds number when scaled with wall parameters. However, it increases with Reynolds number when scaled with outer variables. Velocity fluctuations measured by two hot wires, less than two viscous lengths apart, are analysed to reveal the small-scale features present during a burst and in the absence of a burst. The main conclusions are: (1) intermittent small-scale shear layers occur most frequently when bursts are present, less frequently just after a burst, and even less frequently just before a burst; and (2) on occasion the velocity gradient of the small-scale shear layers is as large as the mean-velocity gradient at the wall.

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