Experimental assessment of a new form of scaling law for new-wall turbulence

Scaling laws and intermittency in the wall region of a turbulent flow are addressed by analyzing data obtained by single component hot wire anemometry in the boundary layer of a flat plate at Reθ = 2200. The article aims in particular at the experimental validation of a new form of refined similarity recently proposed for the shear dominated range of turbulence, where the classical Kolmogorov-Oboukhov inertial range theory is inappropriate. An approach inspired by the extended self-similarity allows for the extraction of the different power laws for the longitudinal structure functions at several wall normal distances. A double scaling regime is found in the logarithmic region, confirming previous experimental results. Approaching the wall, the scaling range corresponding to the classical cascade-dominated range tends to disappear and, in the buffer layer, a single power law is found to describe the available range of scales. The double scaling is shown to be associated with two different forms of refined similarity. The classical form holds below the shear scale Ls. The other, originally introduced on the basis of direct numerical simulation data for a turbulent channel, is experimentally confirmed to set up above Ls. Given the experimental difficulties in the evaluation of the instantaneous dissopation rate, some care is devoted to check that Taylor hypothesis and the one-dimensional surrogate do not bias the results. The increased intermittency as the wall is approached is experimentally found entirely consistent with the failure of the refined Kolmogorov-Oboukhov similarity and the establishment of its new form near the wall. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.