The turbulent near wake at a sharp trailing edge

Edward A Bogucz, J. D A Walker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The problem of a turbulent boundary layer that evolves into a wake flow at the sharp trailing edge of a thin flat plate is considered; the formal structure of the near-wake flow is investigated using matched expansions in the limit of infinite Reynolds number. The symmetric turbulent near wake is shown to develop a two-layer structure which is independent of turbulence model. The general asymptotic analysis shows that a thin layer at the wake centreline grows linearly with distance from the trailing edge while the centreline velocity varies logarithmically in a manner that is supported strongly by experimental measurements. The relatively thick outer layer of the near-wake flow is undisturbed by the evolution of the inner layer to leading order. An additional region near the trailing edge is required to resolve a nonuniformity in transverse velocity. The general asymptotic results are used to grejfbuide the development of a zonal turbulence model for the near wake in the form of a simple eddy viscosity formula. Analytic profiles for velocity and Reynolds stress are obtained for the near-wake region; these profiles are shown to provide accurate representations of available near-wake experimental data.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)555-584
Number of pages30
JournalJournal of Fluid Mechanics
Volume196
DOIs
StatePublished - 1988

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The turbulent near wake at a sharp trailing edge'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this