Turbulent boundary layers developing over compliant surfaces

The problem of reducing drag due to skin friction remains of interest. This is the case because of the significant benefits that would result from an application of a drag reducing scheme on airplanes, ships or underwater vehicles. One of the techniques that have been proposed for such a scheme is wall compliance. Wall compliance could, in principle, work in two ways: either it could delay transition, or it could modify the inner part of a turbulent boundary layer so that reduced skin friction would result. The objective of this research program was to develop prediction techniques for high Reynolds number turbulent flows over compliant surfaces. This objective was pursued by evaluating the wall induced Reynolds stresses using solutions of the liner momentum equations.