Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications
STABILITY OF CONCAVE BOUNDARY LAYERS-OVERVIEW OF STABILITY MECHANISM AND RECENT FINDINGS
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
2009
Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ASME FLUIDS ENGINEERING DIVISION SUMMER CONFERENCE 2008
Volume
1, PT A AND B
First Page
507
Last Page
516
Abstract
A series of experimental measurements of flow and heat transfer under streamwise Gortler vortices shows conclusively that the local surface beat transfer rates can exceed that of the turbulent boundary layer even in the absence of turbulence. We have observed unexpected behavior of heat transfer in a laminar boundary layer on a concave wall at low nominal velocity, a configuration ignored in the literature. In this situation. precise measurements of the wall heat flux show that the heat transfer enhancement is extremely elevated, above that corresponding to the case of a turbulent boundary layer on a flat plate. The nonlinearly developing steady streamwise vortex (primary instability) heat transfer can already bridge the local laminar to turbulent beat transfer values in the absence of turbulence. The analysis shows that for a range of velocities less than a certain critical velocity, the transitional boundary layer is dominated by centrifugal instability. However, the steady streamwise vortices, like steady Taylor vortices between coaxial rotating cylinders, arc susceptible to secondary instabilities of the varicose and sinuous nodes. In experiments both modes appear to coexist and cause waviness of the primary streamwise vortices. Other results confirm this discussion based on analysis of the influence of a forcing upstream disturbance.