Prediction of Wall Shear Stresses in Transitional Boundary Layers Using Near-Wall Mean Velocity Profiles

Prediction of Wall Shear Stresses in Transitional Boundary Layers Using Near-Wall Mean Velocity Profiles

The local wall shear stress in transitional boundary layer was estimated from the near-wall mean velocity data using the principle of Computational Preston Tube Method(CPM). The previous DNS and experimental databases of transitional boundary layers were used to demonstrate the accuracy of the method and to provide the applicable range of wall unit y(sup)+. The skin friction coefficients predicted by the CPM agreed well with those from previous studies. To reexamine the applicability of CPM, near-wall hot-wire measurement were conducted in developing transitional boundary layers on a flat plate with different freestream turbulence intensities. The intermittency profiles across the transitional boundary layers were reasonably obtained from the conditional sampling technique. An empirical correlation between the representative intermittency near the wall and free parameter K$_1$of the extended wall function of CPM has been newly proposed using the present and other experimental data. The CPM has been verified as a useful tool to measure the wall shear stress in transitional boundary layer with reasonable accuracy.