Evaluation of three techniques for wall-shear measurements in three-dimensional flows

Recent improvements in three techniques for measuring skin friction in two- and three-dimensional turbulent wall-bounded shear flows are presented. The techniques are: oil-film interferometry, hot wires mounted near the wall, and surface hot-film sensors based on MEMS technology. First, we demonstrate that the oil-film interferometry technique can be used to measure the skin-friction magnitude and its direction in two- and three-dimensional wall-bounded shear flows. Second, a simple method is outlined to measure the skin friction with a wall wire located outside of the viscous sublayer. Finally, a systematic study of the parameters influencing wall-friction measurements with MEMS sensors is presented. The results demonstrate that accurate measurements of the mean skin friction with MEMS sensors are possible in two- and three-dimensional wall flows. Measurements by the three techniques are compared to each other and to past measurements in the same facility.