Very large-scale motions in the form of long regions of streamwise velocity
fluctuation are observed in the outer layer of fully developed turbulent p
ipe flow over a range of Reynolds numbers. The premultiplied, one-dimension
al spectrum of the streamwise velocity measured by hot-film anemometry has
a bimodal distribution whose components are associated with large-scale mot
ion and a range of smaller scales corresponding to the main turbulent motio
n. The characteristic wavelength of the large-scale mode increases through
the logarithmic layer, and reaches a maximum value that is approximately 12
-14 times the pipe radius, one order of magnitude longer than the largest r
eported integral length scale, and more than four to five times longer than
the length of a turbulent bulge. The wavelength decreases to approximately
two pipe radii at the pipe centerline. It is conjectured that the very lar
ge-scale motions result from the coherent alignment of large-scale motions
in the form of turbulent bulges or packets of hairpin vortices. (C) 1999 Am
erican Institute of Physics. [S1070-6631(99)01002-8].