EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF AN ADVERSE PRESSURE-GRADIENT WAKE AND COMPARISON WITH CALCULATIONS

The wake of a flat plate was subjected to a strong adverse pressure gr adient, causing local flow reversal and high turbulence intensities. T he mean flow and turbulence quantities were measured in the wake and i n the boundary layer of the plate by using a three-component laser-Dop pler anemometer. The experimental data were used to determine some of the terms in the kinetic energy equation. In addition, numerical solut ions of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations were compared wi th the experimental results. The comparison showed that both a k - eps ilon model and a differential stress model correctly predicted the spr eading rate of the wake. However, the mean velocity and the kinetic en ergy on the wake centerline were poorly predicted. Neither model was a ble to predict the measured mean-flow reversal near the centerline. (C ) Elsevier Science Inc., 1997.