Numerical simulation of unsteady three-dimensional turbulent structures in boundary layer flows

The capabilities for numerical simulations of the dynamical effects of the underlying structures occurring in turbulent boundary layers have been developed. A mathematically operational model of hairpin vortex, which closely resembles the experimentally observed underlying structure of wall turbulence, has been constructed and the evolution of this incipient hairpin vortex as well as the distortion of a background laminar boundary layer has been successfully simulated. The height of the incipient hairpin vortex is about 1/5 of the local boundary layer thickness. The calculated results not only exhibit most of the prominent features associated with turbulent spots and turbulent boundary layer flows, but also reveal dynamic processes which have been very difficult to observe in experimental studies, notably, the formation and intensification of another counter rotating hairpin vortex immediately upstream of the incipient hairpin vortex.