The Law of the Wake and Plane of Symmetry Flows in Three-Dimensional Turbulent Boundary Layers

Coles’ model incorporating the law of the wall and the law of the wake, proposed for two and three-dimensional turbulent boundary-layer flows, is examined for the special case of plane of symmetry flows in collateral and skewed three-dimensional boundary layers. Contrary to other published results, it is shown that the model is appropriate for adverse pressure gradient plane of symmetry flows in collateral environments away from separation. Additional, it appears that the departure from Coles’ law of the wake for recently reported three-dimensional flows is of the same basic form as that observed for plane of symmetry flows in transient development or two-dimensional flow with imminent separation. Since the Coles’ model, as most velocity profile models, is proposed only in an asymptotic sense for a well-developed flow, the fact that most of the three-dimensional flows heretofore reported are in transient or undeveloped states, suggests that the three-dimensional model be examined in well-developed three-dimensional boundary-layer flows before the question of the model’s validity can be properly answered.