Measurements in a zero-pressure-gradient turbulent boundary layer over a mesh-screen rough wall indicate several differences, in both inner and outer regions, in comparison to a smooth-wall boundary layer. The mean velocity distribution indicates that, apart from the expected k-type roughness function shift in the inner region, the strength of the rough-wall outer region ‘wake’ is larger than on a smooth wall. Normalizing on the wall shear stress, there is a significant increase in the normal turbulence intensity and a moderate increase in the Reynolds shear stress over the rough wall. The longitudinal turbulence intensity distribution is essentially the same for both surfaces. Normalized contributions to the Reynolds shear stress from the second (Q2) and fourth (Q4) quadrants are greater over the rough wall. The data indicate that not only are Q2 and Q4 events stronger on the rough wall but their frequency of occurrence is nearly twice as large for the rough wall as for the smooth wall. Comparison between smooth- and rough-wall spectra of the normal velocity fluctuation suggests that the strength of the active motion may depend on the nature of the surface.

The experimental results for an equilibrium boundary layer in a strong adverse pressure gradient flow are reported. The measurements show that similarity in the mean flow and the turbulent stresses has been achieved over a substantial streamwise distance where the skin friction coefficient is kept at a low, constant level. Although the Reynolds stress distribution across the layer is entirely different from the flow at zero pressure gradient, the ratios between the different turbulent stress components were found to be similar, showing that the mechanism for distributing the turbulent energy between the different components remains unaffected by the mean flow pressure gradient. Close to the surface the gradient of the mixing length was found to increase from Kl ≈ 0.41 to Kl ≈ 0.78, almost twice as high as for the zero pressure gradient case. Similarity in the triple correlations was also found to be good. The correlations show that there is a considerable diffusion of turbulent energy from the central part of the boundary layer towards the wall. The diffusion mechanism is caused by a second peak in the turbulence production, located at y/δ ≈ 0.45. This production was for the present case almost as strong as the production found near the wall. The energy budget for the turbulent kinetic energy also shows that strong dissipation is not restricted to the wall region, but is significant for most of the layer.

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The structure of turbulent boundary layers which develop with zero pressure gradient on a smooth wall and a k-type rough wall was examined using arrays of X-wires. Although the data were obtained only on two orthogonal planes, the technique provides some information on the three-dimensionality of the large-scale structures. The major effect of the roughness is to tilt the inclination of the structures towards the wall-normal direction. This is caused by the reduced damping of the wall-normal velocity fluctuations close to the rough surface and the break-up of structures whose scales are comparable to the size of the roughness elements. Both effects cause a reduction in the streamwise lengthscales, as suggested by all the measured two-point correlations. The correlations also show that the roughness tends to reduce the overall anisotropy of the large-scale motion. There is evidence to suggest that the magnitude of the vorticity field is larger over the rough wall.

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