Preface: symposium on turbulence structures and aerodynamic heat/force(STSAHF2018)——scientific significance of turbulence research

Most fluid flows in nature and engineering applications are in the state of turbulence.Turbulent motions usually exhibit a wide range of spatial and temporal scales,such as the flow of natural gas and oil in pipelines,the wakes of cars and submarines,the boundary layer of an aircraft,the current in the ocean surface,the atmospheric boundary layer,the interstellar gas clouds(gaseous stars),and the Earth’s wake in the solar wind.Turbulence can greatly improve the heat and mass transfer efficiency of macroscopic flow.For example,chemical engineers use turbulence to mix up and homogenize fluid components and to increase chemical reaction rates in liquids or gases.However,turbulence can also lead to increases in drag,aerodynamic heat,and hydrodynamic and aerodynamic noise.For instance,the aerodynamic loading of high-speed aircraft can be significantly increased due to turbulence.

Generation of acoustic waves in the hypersonic boundary layer over a wavy wall

The effects of a wavy wall on a hypersonic boundary layer of a flared cone are investigated using experimental measurements and direct numerical simulations(DNSs). Non-contact optical measurements using a focused laser differential interferometer(FLDI) show that a wavy wall can significantly suppress the second mode, and multiple perturbations of new frequencies are generated over the wavy surface, which agrees well with numerical results. Using Lagrangian tracking of marked particles, it is demonstrated that the wavy wall geometry can induce mean flow oscillations while exciting acoustic waves. The frequencies of the excited disturbances over a wavy wall agree with the classical Rossiter model. The superposition of a disturbance propagating downstream and an acoustic wave propagating upstream at the same frequency but with different amplitudes and propagation velocities results in a spatial distribution with a streamwise-oscillatory pattern over the wavy surface. A simple two-wave superposition model that takes into account the phase velocities and wavenumbers of the convective disturbance and acoustic wave can well describe the modal behavior of excited disturbances over a wavy wall.

Reduced aerodynamic heating in a hypersonic boundary layer by a wavy wall

Hypersonic boundary layer transition is of fundamental importance for the design of high-speed vehicles because of its direct relevance to drag and aerodynamic heating.As the focus of transition and turbulence research is shifting towards higher velocities,research on compressible flows,especially hypersonic flows,is becoming increasingly attractive to researchers worldwide[1,2].