Abstract
The traditional description of turbulence in supersonic boundary layers by Morkovin (1962) assumes that the dynamics of energetic eddies is independent of the Mach number, as long as the flow is not hypersonic. This hypothesis leads to a description of supersonic turbulent boundary layers as flows with variable fluid properties (for example variable density and temperature), with the same underlying physical mechanisms as at low speeds. This implies in particular that the van Driest transformed velocity profile has a log-law with the same slope as in subsonic flows. A recent review by Spina, Smits and Robinson (1994) confirms this situation: the main differences in equilibrium boundary layers is found in the scale and orientation of the isocorrelations. On the other hand, it is well known that mixing layers and jets do not follow Morkovin’s hypothesis since the overall properties of free shear flows are controlled by compressibility effects. The scope of this paper is to discuss from recent experimental results what is known about the properties of compressible turbulence in supersonic mixing layers and boundary layers, with consequences for simple turbulence models.
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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Debiève, J.F., Dupont, P., Smits, A.J., Dussauge, J.P. (1997). Compressibility VS. Density Variations and the Structure of Turbulence: A Viewpoint from Experiments. In: Fulachier, L., Lumley, J.L., Anselmet, F. (eds) IUTAM Symposium on Variable Density Low-Speed Turbulent Flows. Fluid Mechanics and Its Applications, vol 41. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5474-1_38
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5474-1_38
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