On near-wall hot-wire measurements

A specially constructed hot-wire probe was used to obtain very near-wall velocity measurements in both a fully developed turbulent channel flow and flat plate boundary layer flow. The near-wall hot-wire probe, having been calibrated in a specially constructed laminar flow calibration rig, was used to measure the mean streamwise velocity profile, distributions of streamwise and spanwise intensities of turbulence, and turbulence kinetic energy in the viscous sublayer and beyond; these distributions compare very favorably with available DNS results obtained for channel flow. While low Reynolds number effects were clearly evident for the channel flow, these effects are much less distinct for the boundary layer flow. By assuming the dissipating range of eddy sizes to be statistically isotropic and the validity of Taylor's hypothesis, the dissipation rate in the very near-wall viscous sublayer region and beyond was determined for both the channel and boundary layer flows. (Author)