Visualization of Shear Stress With Micro Imaging Chip and Discrete Wavelet Transform

Abstract

The two-dimensional low-speed structure of a turbulent boundary layer has been clearly visualized by a combination of a shear stress sensor using micro electro mechanical systems and the discrete wavelet transform. The application of two-dimensional discrete wavelet transforms to the visualization of wall shear stress data obtained using the micro shear stress imaging chip is described. The experiment was carried out under various Reynolds number conditions. It is shown that it is possible to visualize the low-speed streak structure as contours of two-dimensional wavelet level corresponding to spanwise wave number as a function of Reynolds number.