An experimental investigation of heat transfer in three-dimensional and separating turbulent boundary layers

Abstract

The turbulence structure of convective heat transfer was studied experimentally in complex three-dimensional and separating turbulent boundary layers. Three test cases whose fluid dynamics have been well documented were examined. In case 1, time- and spatially-resolved surface heat transfer was measured in the nose region of a wing-body junction formed by a wing and a flat plate. Both the wing and the endwall were heated and held at a constant uniform temperature 20 °C above ambient temperature. Heat flux rates were increased up to a factor of 3 over the heat flux rates in the approach boundary layer. The rms of the heat flux fluctuations were as high as 25% of the mean heat flux in the vortex-dominated nose region. Away from the wing, upstream of the time-averaged vortex center, augmentation in the heat flux is due to increased turbulent mixing caused by large-scale unsteadiness of the vortex. Adjacent to the wing the augmentation in heat flux is due to a change in the mean velocity field.