Dynamic response of boundary‐layer turbulence to oscillatory shear

Abstract

The temporal response of a well‐developed turbulent boundary layer to the superposition of oscillatory shear has been measured experimentally, over a wide range of frequencies. The response is primarily a periodic organization in magnitude of components of the turbulent velocity field at the forcing frequency. Oscillatory production of turbulence arises predominantly as a modulation of the mean production process in the parent boundary layer. Close to the wall, the relative phases of response of components of turbulent kinetic energy indicate that temporal redistribution of turbulent kinetic energy is driven by robust coherent motions of the underlying mean flow. The local directions of redistribution deduced from these measurements indicate a wall impingement (splatting) effect, consistent with characterizations from numerical simulation.