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Laminarescent, relaminarizing and retransitional flows

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Summary

This report examines in detail all accelerated turbulent boundary layers and subcritical pipe or channel flows undergoing relaminarization and possible retransition, with a view to evolving a broad picture in regard to the status of experiments in these flows, the trustworthiness or shortcomings of the data, the sources of difficulties peculiar to these flows, etc. With the hindsight so acquired, a discussion is provided of the directions in which future work would most usefully supplement the existing data.

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Abbreviations

a :

pipe radius or channel half-height

c f :

skin-friction coefficient

H :

shape factor,δ * /θ

K :

acceleration parameter, ν(dU ∞ /dx)/U 2∞

k :

Karman constant

P :

kinematic pressure

Re:

Reynolds number,U av a/ν

R θ :

momentum thickness Reynolds number,U ∞θ/ν

T :

temperature

U, V :

mean velocity inx andy directions respectively

U * :

friction velocity,\(\tau _{w^{1/2} }\)

u, v, w :

fluctuating velocity components in thex, y andz directions respectively

x, y, z :

streamwise, normal and spanwise Cartesian coordinates

Δ p :

\(v(dP/dx)/U_{*^3 }\)

Δ τ :

\(v(\partial \tau /\partial y)/U_{*^3 }\)

δ:

boundary layer thickness,U(δ)/U ∞=0.995

δ* :

displacement thickness,\(\int\limits_{ - \infty }^\infty {(1 - U/U_\infty ) dy}\)

θ:

momentum thickness,\(\int\limits_{ - \infty }^\infty {(U/U_\infty ) (1 - U/U_\infty ) dy}\)

Λ:

pressure gradient parameter,(dP/dx) δ/τ w

ν:

kinematic viscosity coefficient

τ:

kinematic Reynolds shear stress,\(\overline { - uv}\)

∞:

free-stream values

w:

wall values

av:

section average values

+:

variables normalized by U* and ν

′:

rms values

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  1. Applied Mechanics, Yale University, 06520, New Haven, CT, USA

    K. R. Sreenivasan

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Sreenivasan, K.R. Laminarescent, relaminarizing and retransitional flows. Acta Mechanica 44, 1–48 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01190916

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