A new scaling for the streamwise turbulence intensity in wall-bounded turbulent flows and what it tells us about the outer peak

One recent focus of experimental studies of turbulence in high Reynolds number wall-bounded flows has been the scaling of the root mean square of the fluctuating streamwise velocity, but progress has largely been impaired by spatial resolution effects of hot-wire sensors. For the near-wall peak, recent results seem to have clarified the controversy; however, one of the remaining issues in this respect is the emergence of a second (so-called outer) peak at high Reynolds numbers. The present letter introduces a new scaling of the local turbulence intensity profile, based on the diagnostic plot by Alfredsson and Orlu [Eur. J. Mech. B/Fluids 42, 403 (2010)], which predicts the location and amplitude of the outer peak and suggests its presence as a question of sufficiently large scale separation. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3581074]