This article summarizes our present understanding of the physical behavior of two-dimensional turbulent separated flows, which occur due to adverse pressure gradients around streamlined and bluff bodies. The physical behavior of turbulence is flow dependent, so detailed experimental infor­ mation is needed for understanding such flows and modeling their physics for calculation methods. An earlier review (Simpson 1 985) discussed in much detail prior experimental and computational work, and this was followed by an updated review of calculation methods only (Simpson 1 987). Here additional recent references are added to those cited in the two other works. By separation, we mean the entire process of departure or breakaway, or the breakdown of boundary-layer flow. An abrupt thickening of the rotational-flow region next to a wall and significant values of the normal­ to-wall velocity component must accompany breakaway, or otherwise this region would not have any significant interaction with the free-stream flow. This unwanted interaction causes a reduction in the performance of the flow device of interest (e.g. a loss of lift on an airfoil or a loss of pressure rise in a diffuser). It is too narrow a view to use vanishing surface shearing stress or flow reversal as the criterion for separation. Only in steady two-dimensional flow do these conditions usually accompany separation. In unsteady two­ dimensional flow the surface shear stress can change sign with flow reversal without the occurrence of breakaway_ Conversely, the breakdown of the boundary-layer concept can occur before any flow reversal is encountered. In three-dimensional flow the rotational layer can depart without the

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Turbulent Boundary-Layer Separation

Aspects of turbulent boundary-layer separation

This paper describes the behaviour of a turbulent boundary layer on a smooth, axisymmetric body exposed to an adverse pressure gradient of sufficient strength to cause a short region of mean reverse flow ('separation’). The pressure distribution is tailored such that the boundary layer reattaches and then develops in a nominally zero pressure gradient. Hot-wire and pulsed-wire measurements are presented over the separated region and downstream of reattachment. The response of the turbulence quantities to separation and to reattachment is discussed, with emphasis on the relaxation behaviour after reattachment. Over the separation bubble, the response is characteristic of that seen by other workers: the Reynolds stresses in the inner region are reduced and stress peaks develop away from the wall. At reattachment, the skewness of the fluctuating wall shear stress vanishes, as it is known to do at separation. After reattachment, the outer-layer stresses decay towards levels typical of unperturbed boundary layers. But the inner-layer relaxation is unusual. As the viscous wall stress increases downstream of reattachment, the recovery does not start at the wall and travel outward via the formation of an ‘internal’ layer, the process observed in many other relaxing flows. In fact, the inner layer responds markedly more slowly than the outer layer, even though response times are shortest near the wall. It is concluded that the large-scale, outer structures in the turbulent boundary layer survive the separation process and interfere with the regeneration of Reynolds stresses in the inner region after reattachment. This behaviour continues for at least six bubble lengths (20 boundary-layer thicknesses) after reattachment and is believed to have profound implications for our understanding of the interaction between inner and outer layers in turbulent boundary layers.

Turbulence measurements around a mild separation bubble and downstream of reattachment

By using the RANS boundary layer equations, it will be shown that the outer part of an adverse pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer tends to remain in equilibrium similarity, even near and past separation. Such boundary layers are characterized by a single and constant pressure gradient parameter, and its value appears to be the same for all adverse pressure gradient flows, including those with eventual separation

http://turbulence-online.com/Publications/Papers/CWG04.pdf

Separation criterion for turbulent boundary layers via similarity analysis

A family of cases each containing a small separation bubble is treated by direct numerical simulation (DNS), varying two parameters: the severity of the pressure gradients, generated by suction and blowing across the opposite boundary, and the Reynolds number. Each flow contains a well-developed entry region with essentially zero pressure gradient, and all are adjusted to have the same value for the momentum thickness, extrapolated from the entry region to the centre of the separation bubble. Combined with fully defined boundary conditions this will make comparisons with other simulations and turbulence models rigorous; we present results for a set of eight Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes turbulence models. Even though the largest Reynolds number is approximately 5.5 times higher than in a similar DNS study we presented in 1997, the models have difficulties matching the DNS skin friction very closely even in the zero pressure gradient, which complicates their assessment. In the rest of the domain, the separation location per se is not particularly difficult to predict, and the most definite disagreement between DNS and models is near reattachment. Curiously, the better models tend to cluster together in their predictions of pressure and skin friction even when they deviate from the DNS, although their eddy-viscosity levels are widely different in the outer region near the bubble (or they do not rely on an eddy viscosity). Stratford’s square-root law is satisfied by the velocity profiles, both at separation and reattachment. The Reynolds-number range covers a factor of two, with the Reynolds number based on the extrapolated momentum thickness equal to approximately 1500 and 3000. This allows tentative estimates of the improvements that even higher values will bring to the model comparisons. The solutions are used to assess models through pressure, skin friction and other measures; the flow fields are also used to produce effective eddy-viscosity targets for the models, thus guiding turbulence-modelling work in each region of the flow.

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Numerical study of turbulent separation bubbles with varying pressure gradient and Reynolds number.

An improved single-variable correlation is developed for incipient and full detachment, and for reattachment ,of turbulent boundary layers on two-dimensional surfaces. The correlation is shown to agree with 1) the wallwake law of Coles; 2) the criterion for detachment of Sandborn and Kline; 3) a large amount of old flowvisualization data; and 4) new measurements of time-averaged fraction of forward flow. Relationships among the correlation, the underlying physics, and the implications for computations are discussed. The results clarify long-standing confusion between incipient and full detachment of turbulent boundary layers with regard to both correlation and computation.

R. C. Strawn

Papers

Correlation of the detachment of two-dimensional turbulent boundary layers

Correlation and computation of detachment and reattachment of turbulent boundary layers on two-dimensional faired surfaces