An experimental investigation of an unsteady adverse pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer: embedded shear layer scaling

An experimental investigation of an unsteady adverse pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer is described. It is demonstrated that the local flow physics is largely dominated by an inflectional instability which gives rise to an embedded shear layer contained within the boundary layer. Experimental measurements are presented which are fully consistent with the presence of clockwise spanwise-oriented coherent vorticity within the embedded shear layer. Using embedded shear layer scaling parameters in the form of the shear layer vorticity thickness and the velocity defect at the upper inflection point, both the mean and the phase-averaged boundary layer velocity profiles exhibit similarity in both space and time over a large wall-normal extent. In a similar manner, the profiles of the streamwise-component turbulence intensity and Reynolds stress also exhibit similarity when scaled with the embedded shear layer parameters. The embedded shear layer scaling of previously published adverse pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer measurements confirms its generic applicability in a wide range of flow-field geometries and extending to high Reynolds numbers.