Effects of Surface Irregularity on Turbulent Boundary Layer Wall Pressure Fluctuations

Measurements were made of the mean velocity profiles and wall pressure field upstream and downstream of the flow over both a backward-facing and forward-facing step. For each configuration the velocity profiles show that the effects of the separation-reattachment process persist more than 24 step heights downstream of the step. Extremely high values of the RMS wall pressure are measured near reattachment. These values are 5 and 10 times larger than on a smooth flat plate for the backward-facing step and the forward-facing step, respectively. The spectral density of the wall pressure fluctuations in the recirculation region is dominated by low frequency components. Downstream of reattachment there is a reduction in the low frequency content of the wall pressures and an increase in the high frequency components. At the farthest measured position downstream, the spectral density is still higher than that found on a smooth flat plate. These results show that the complex turbulent flow generated by a surface irregularity can significantly increase the localized wall pressure field and these increases persist far downstream of the irregularity. Consequently, a surface irregularity can be a major source of turbulence-induced vibrations and flow noise, as well as a cause of the inception of cavitation in marine applications.