Tomographic particle image velocimetry flow structures downstream of a dynamic cylindrical element in a turbulent boundary layer by multi-scale proper orthogonal decomposition

This study reports the modification of large and small scales in a turbulent boundary layer (TBL) perturbed by a dynamic cylindrical element (DCE). Tomographic particle image velocimetry (Tomo-PIV) was utilized to measure the flow fields downstream of the dynamic perturbation. By the approach of multi-scale proper orthogonal decomposition (mPOD), the coherent modes relevant to the predefined frequency bands were extracted from the Tomo-PIV dataset. Then, a method was developed to construct the large- and small-scale structures and the DCE-perturbed structure based on the mPOD modes. The DCE impact on the large- and small-scale structures was elaborated by comparing with the unperturbed TBL case. The two-point correlation analysis indicated that large-scale structures appear downstream of the DCE perturbation in a short streamwise length scale. More importantly, the scale rearrangements were further examined by presenting the modulation coefficients between the large scales and small-scale energy. It revealed that even though the DCE perturbation alters the level of correlation, three different types of interaction scenario can still be observed. In the near-wall region, the large-scale structures have an amplitude modulation effect on the small-scale energy with the lower positive coefficients. The reversal scale arrangement was observed at the wall-normal height around the DCE amplitude, which could be attributed to the fluid exchange caused by the new-generated turbulent structures. In the log region, it confirmed that the inclined shear layer resides along the low-speed regions, which supported the robustness of the conceptual model of hairpin packets in the current DCE-perturbed TBL.