An experimental characterization of the turbulent boundary layers developing around a NACA 4412 wing profile is carried out in the Minimum Turbulence Level (MTL) wind tunnel located at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The campaign included collecting wall-pressure data via built-in pressure taps, capturing velocity signals in the turbulent boundary layers (TBLs) using hot-wire anemometry (HWA), and conducting direct skin-friction measurements with oil-film interferometry (OFI). The research spanned two chord-based Reynolds numbers (Rec=4×105 and 106) and four angles of attack (5°, 8°, 11° and 14°), encompassing a broad spectrum of flow conditions, from mild to strong adverse-pressure gradients (APGs), including scenarios where the TBL detaches from the wing surface. This dataset offers crucial insights into TBL behavior under varied flow conditions, particularly in the context of APGs. Key features include the quasi-independence of the pressure coefficient distributions from Reynolds number, which aids in distinguishing Reynolds-number effects from those due to APG strengths. The study also reveals changes in TBL dynamics as separation approaches, with energy shifting from the inner to the outer region and the eventual transition to a free-shear flow state post-separation. Additionally, the diagnostic scaling in the outer region under spatial-resolution effects is considered, showing further evidence for its applicability for small L+, however with inconsistent results for larger L+. The findings and database resulting from this campaign may be of special relevance for the development and validation of turbulence models, especially in the context of aeronautical applications.

This experimental study examines the downstream wake development influenced by attached turbulent boundary layers under adverse and favorable pressure gradients (APG, FPG) on the suction and pressure sides of a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 4412 airfoil. Experiments were performed at a chord-based Reynolds number of Re-c=400 000 and angles of attack of 5 degrees and 8 degrees. Surface pressure scans and hot-wire anemometry were used to characterize boundary layer and wake profiles, extending three chord lengths downstream of the trailing edge. The key contributions are: (i) demonstrating a strong memory effect whereby upstream boundary-layer characteristics persist into the very-near- and near-wake; (ii) establishing a unified inner/outer velocity scaling framework that enables direct comparison of boundary-layer and wake profiles; and (iii) identifying distinct suction- vs pressure-side routes to self-similarity driven by the sign of the pressure gradient. Inner scaling of wake velocity profiles using friction velocity and viscous length scale proves valid only within the very-near-wake. In contrast, outer-scaled velocity-defect profiles using the Zagarola-Smits velocity reveal self-similarity on the suction side from the trailing edge across the entire wake region, whereas pressure-side profiles retain significant upstream influence initially, with self-similarity emerging from the near-wake onward. Turbulence analysis via streamwise velocity variance and premultiplied power spectral densities further shows distinct development patterns on the suction and pressure sides of the wake. The APG on the suction side promotes early development of wake-type structures and self-similarity, while the FPG on the pressure side preserves boundary-layer features deeper into the wake. These findings demonstrate how upstream pressure gradients modulate the transition from boundary-layer-dominated to wake-dominated behavior, providing new physical insight into wake development and supporting improved aerodynamic modeling and wake prediction for aeronautical and wind energy applications.

Thermal anemometry sensors for time-resolved velocity measurements average the measured signal over the length of their sensor, thereby attenuating fluctuations stemming from scales smaller than the wire length. Several compensation methods have emerged for wall turbulence, the most prominent ones relying on the small-scale universality in canonical flows or on the reconstruction based on two attenuated variance profiles obtained with sensors of different length. To extend these methods to non-canonical flows, the present work considers various adverse-pressure gradient (APG) turbulent boundary layer (TBL) flows in order to explore how the small-scale energy is affected in the inner and outer layer and how the two prominent correction methods perform as function of wall-distance, wire length and flow condition. Our findings show that the increased levels of small-scale energy in the inner, but also outer layer associated with APG TBLs reduces the applicability of empirical methods based on the universality of small-scale energy. On the other hand, a correction based on the relationship between the spanwise Taylor microscale and the two-point streamwise velocity correlation function, is able to correct the attenuated profiles of non-canonical cases. Combining the strength of both methods, a composite profile for the spanwise Taylor microscale is suggested, which then is used for the correction of probe-length attenuation effects across a multitude of flow conditions.

Direct numerical simulations of the fully developed turbulent flow through helical pipes are performed. The numerical procedure is described, and a validation of the volume force driving the flow is presented. A comparison of the turbulence statistics against literature data is also reported.

This study uses high-resolution large-eddy simulations (LES) to investigate the turbulent flow around a NACA 4412 wing profile at multiple Reynolds numbers based on chord length and free-stream velocity (Rec=2×105, 4×105 and 106) and angles of attack (AoA=5∘, 8°, 11° and 14°). The introduction of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and non-conformal meshing into the spectral-element-method code Nek5000 enabled the simulations at higher AoAs exhibiting flow separation by enabling the use of wider domains, allowing to capture the largest turbulent scales associated with flow separation. The results provide a detailed database – including integral quantities, velocity statistics and spectra – which may be used for the evaluation of lower-fidelity turbulence models. Furthermore, closer inspection of specific turbulent-boundary-layer (TBL) profiles allows us to discern between pressure-gradient (PG) and Reynolds-numbers effects on TBLs, showing that Re balances the PG, by reducing the impact of PG on the flow. Lastly, we assess the influence of flow history on TBLs, showing that a consistent flow history over an extended length is needed for TBLs to exhibit comparable profiles and characteristics.

The effect of a finite length of hot-wire probe sensor length on the measured streamwise velocity fluctuations is well understood in canonical wall-bounded flow, where the small-scale energy has been found to be universal and invariant with Reynolds number. A straightforward application of that assumption to non-canonical flows such as strong adverse pressure gradient (APG) flows has, however, been hampered since the effect of Re and APG could not conclusively be studied separately due to the lack of data with a clear scale separation. The present experimental investigation at Reτ≈4000 in weak, moderate and strong APGs with different wire length shows that spatial averaging effects are not only limited to the inner layer. A note of caution is hence warranted for measurements that seemingly try to take the bias effect of spatial attenuation into account by performing measurements with albeit long but fixed viscous-scaled wire length.

Wall-bounded turbulent flows as those occurring in transportation (e.g. aviation) or industrial applications (e.g turbomachinery), are usually subjected to pressure gradients (PGs). The presence of such PGs affects greatly the development and physics of the turbulent boundary layer (TBL), making it an open research area. An important phenomena associated with the presence of strong adverse PGs (APGs) as appearing in wings, is the separation of the boundary layer, which can lead to stall.

Spatially and temporally resolved velocity measurements in wall-bounded turbulent flows remain a challenge. Contrary to classical laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) measurements, the laser Doppler velocity profile sensor (LDV-PS) allows the combined measurement of tracer particle position and velocity, which makes it a promising tool. To assess its feasibility a commercial LDV-PS is employed in a turbulent channel flow at Reτ= 350 . Additionally, the measurement and signal-processing accuracies of velocity and location are evaluated for various tracer-object sizes and velocities. On this basis, the turbulent channel flow measurements are evaluated and compared to reference data from direct numerical simulations. Thus, potentials of the LDV-PS are investigated for different regions of the flow and various data processing routines as well as the experimental practice are discussed from an application perspective.

The present study investigates the modal stability of the steady incompressible flow inside a toroidal pipe for values of the curvature (ratio between pipe and torus radii) approaching zero, i.e. the limit of a straight pipe. The global neutral stability curve for is traced using a continuation algorithm. Two different families of unstable eigenmodes are identified. For curvatures below, the critical Reynolds number is proportional to. Hence, the critical Dean number is constant,. This behaviour confirms that the Hagen-Poiseuille flow is stable to infinitesimal perturbations for any Reynolds number and suggests that a continuous transition from the curved to the straight pipe takes place as far as it regards the stability properties. For low values of the curvature, an approximate self-similar solution for the steady base flow can be obtained at a fixed Dean number. Exploiting the proposed semi-analytic scaling in the stability analysis provides satisfactory results.