Experimental measurement of coherent structures in turbulent boundary layers using moving time-resolved particle image velocimetry

A moving time-resolved particle image velocimetry (MTRPIV) system was designed to measure the turbulent boundary layer (TBL). The combination of time-resolved particle image velocimetry and a translational moving system enables the MTRPIV to track the coherent structures with a long period and high temporal resolution. Based on the MTRPIV, the time-evolving of coherent structures within the TBL was measured and analyzed. The observation of the large-scale sweep collision with ejection shows that the strong collision causes the large-scale high- and low-speed coherent structures to break down. The time-evolving process of the hairpin packets shows that the low-speed fluid mass under the hairpin vortices is important for the generation of a whole hairpin packet. The small-scale low-speed structures increase their spatial scales by merging so that the independent hairpin vortices can be organized by merged larger-scale structures. The shear layer exceeding the length of 0.7-0.8 delta (delta is thickness of TBL) or 350-400 upsilon/U-tau (upsilon and U-tau denote the kinematic viscosity and friction velocity, respectively) is unstable, and it will roll-up to generate a hairpin vortex. In the hairpin packet growth process, the inclination angle of the hairpin packet decreases from similar to 13 degrees to 8 degrees in a time duration of 120 upsilon/U-tau(2), and the underlying low-speed fluid is elongated and then split. The analysis of the uniform momentum zones (UMZs) shows that the topmost UMZ has a relatively stable wall-normal position and convection speed. The lower UMZ is quasi-periodically generated and tends to move upward to merge with the upper UMZs. The hairpin packets impact the lower UMZs by inducing large-scale low-speed fluid mass to modulate the probability density function distribution of instantaneous streamwise velocity. The evolution of UMZs with velocity less than 0.5U(infinity) (U-infinity denotes the free-stream velocity) is the result of the interaction of large- and small-scale streamwise fluctuation velocity.