Measurement of Transitional Surface Roughness Effects on Flat-Plate Boundary Layer Transition

An experimental study has been conducted to investigate the effects of transitionally rough surface on the flat-plate boundary layer transition. Transitional boundary layers with three different flat plates (k_s⁺ = 0.07 ∼ 0.19, 2.71 ∼ 7.05, and 13.65 ∼ 41.09) have been measured with a single-sensor hot-wire probe. All of the measurements have been conducted under zero pressure gradient (ZPG) at the fixed Reynolds number (Re_L) and freestream turbulence intensity (Tu) of 3.05 × 10⁶ and 0.2%. Transitionally, rough surface does not affect the sigmoidal distribution of turbulence intermittency model; but induces earlier transition onset and shortens the transition length. For all surfaces, streamwise turbulence intensity profiles with similar values of turbulence intermittency are similar for the transition length less than 60%. Therefore, mean velocity profiles with the similar values of turbulence intermittency are similar regardless of surface conditions. However, downstream of 60% of the transition length, mean velocity defect increases as the surface roughness increases. Enhanced diffusion of turbulent kinetic energy from the near wall (y/δ < 0.1) to the outer part (y/δ ≈ 0.4) of the boundary layer due to the surface roughness is responsible for the increased momentum deficit.