Measurements of the Effects of Streamwise Riblets on Boundary Layer Turbulence

Abstract

This study presents experimental results on the effects of riblets on the coherent structures of turbulence within a turbulent spot. The riblet spacings of the study correspond to 0.5 and 1.5 times the natural spacing of the low-speed streak. The cross-sectional dimensions of the riblets were chosen to control the spatial distribution of wave packets consisting of streamwise-aligned hairpin vortices. Both riblet spacings demonstrated effective control on the spanwise positioning of the wave packets. The wider-spaced riblets reduced spanwise mutual interaction between wave packets. The closer-spaced riblets promoted this interaction via spanwise-oriented vortical structures which produced stronger turbulent fluctuations.