Using direct numerical simulation to analyze and improve hot-wire probe sensor and array configurations for simultaneous measurement of the velocity vector and the velocity gradient tensor

Multi-sensor, hot-wire probes of various configurations have been used for 25 years to simultaneously measure the velocity vector and the velocity gradient tensor in turbulent flows. This is the same period in which direct numerical simulations (DNS) were carried out to investigate these flows. Using the first DNS of a turbulent boundary layer, Moin and Spalart [“Contributions of numerical simulation data bases to the physics, modeling and measurement of turbulence,” NASA Technical Memorandum 100022 (1987)] examined, virtually, the performance of a two-sensor X-array probe with the sensors idealized as points in the numerical grid. Subsequently, several investigators have used DNS for similar studies. In this paper we use a highly resolved minimal channel flow DNS, following Jimenez and Moin [“The minimal flow unit in near-wall turbulence,” J. Fluid Mech. 225, 213 (1991)], to study the performance of an 11-sensor probe. Our previous studies of this type have indicated that, on balance, a probe of the desi...