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INDIVIDUAL TURBULENT CELL INTERACTION: BASIS FOR BOUNDARY LAYER ESTABLISHMENT
Citation:
Frick, W E. INDIVIDUAL TURBULENT CELL INTERACTION: BASIS FOR BOUNDARY LAYER ESTABLISHMENT. Presented at Estuarine Research Federation 15th Biennial Conference, New Orleans, LA, September 25-30, 1999.
Description:
Boundary layers are important in determining the forces on objects in flowing fluids, mixing characteristics, and other phenomena. For example, benthic boundary layers are frequently active resuspension layers that determine bottom turbidity and transniissivity. Traditionally, boundary layer theory has been based on the assumption of incompressible flow, and are often treated by random mathematical methods. However, recently it was shown that turbulent flow is inherently compressible flow and that turbulence is comprised of short-lived, physically-definable cells. This theory suggests that pressure disturbances caused by turbulent density fluctuations can vary considerably from those derived from our understanding of the Bernoulli effect for incompressible flow. This work builds on the new theory for turbulence to synthesize bursts of turbulent flow in an attempt to define boundary layers in shear flow.