The behaviour of the velocity and pressure fluctuations in the outer layers of wall-bounded turbu... more The behaviour of the velocity and pressure fluctuations in the outer layers of wall-bounded turbulent flows is analysed by comparing a new simulation of the zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer with older simulations of channels. The 99 % boundary-layer thickness is used as a reasonable analogue of the channel half-width, but the two flows are found to be too different for the analogy to be complete. In agreement with previous results, it is found that the fluctuations of the transverse velocities and of the pressure are stronger in the boundary layer, and this is traced to the pressure fluctuations induced in the outer intermittent layer by the differences between the potential and rotational flow regions. The same effect is also shown to be responsible for the stronger wake component of the mean velocity profile in external flows, whose increased energy production is the ultimate reason for the stronger fluctuations. Contrary to some previous results by our group, and by others, ...
The behaviour of the velocity and pressure fluctuations in the logarithmic and outer layers of tu... more The behaviour of the velocity and pressure fluctuations in the logarithmic and outer layers of turbulent flows is analysed using spectral information and probability density functions from channel simulations at Reτ≤2000. Comparisons are made with experimental data at higher Reynolds numbers. It is found, in agreement with previous investigations, that the intensity profiles of the streamwise and spanwise velocity components have logarithmic ranges that are traced to the widening spectral range of scales as the wall is approached. The same is true for the pressure, both theoretically and observationally, but not for the normal velocity or for the tangential stress cospectrum, although even those two quantities have structures with lengths of the order of several hundred times the wall distance. Because the logarithmic range grows longer as the Reynolds number increases, variables which are ‘attached’ in this sense scale in the buffer layer in mixed units. These results give strong s...
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Papers by JAVIER JIMENEZ