Upstream roughness and Reynolds number effects on turbulent flow structure over forward facing step

Abstract This paper presents results of experiments conducted to investigate the effects of Reynolds number and upstream wall roughness on the turbulence structure in the recirculation and recovery regions of a smooth forward facing step. A reference smooth upstream wall and a rough upstream wall made from sand gains were studied. For the smooth upstream wall, experiments were conducted at Reynolds number based on the freestream velocity and step height ( h ), Re h  = 4940, 8400 and 8650. The rough wall experiments was performed at Re h  = 5100, 8200 and 8600 to closely match the corresponding Re h experiment over the smooth wall. The reattachment lengths in the smooth wall experiments were L r / h ≈ 2.2, but upstream roughness significantly reduced these values to L r / h ≈ 1.3. The integral scales within the recirculation bubbles were independent of upstream roughness and Reynolds number; however, upstream roughness significantly increased the spatial coherence and integral scales outside the recirculation bubbles and in the recovery region. Irrespective of the upstream wall condition, the redeveloping boundary layer recovered at 25 h from reattachment.