This paper provides an experimental investigation on the internal shear layers and the edges of the uniform momentum zones (UMZs) in a turbulent pipe flow. The time-resolved stereoscopic particle image velocimetry data are acquired in the cross-section of the pipe, and span the range of Reynolds number Reτ=340--1259. In the first part of the study, internal shear layers are detected using a three-dimensional detection method, and both their geometry as well as their fingerprint in the flow statistics are examined. Three-dimensional conditional mean flow analysis revealed a strong low-speed region beneath the average shear layers. This low-speed region is associated with positive wall-normal fluctuations, and it is accompanied by two swirling motions having opposite signs on either side in the azimuthal direction. Moreover, the shear layers are stretched by the two opposite azimuthal motions. In the second part of the study, the shear layers are treated as the continuous edges of the UMZs, which are detected using the histogram method following Adrian et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 422, 2000, pp. 1–54) and de Silva et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 786, 2016, pp. 309–331). For this part, two different orientation of the planes are used, i.e. the wall-normal–streamwise plane and the wall-normal–spanwise plane (cross-section of the pipe). Comparison of the detected structures shows that the shear layers mostly overlap with a UMZ edge (in either plane).
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This thesis aims to contribute to the physical understanding of turbulence in canonical flows. For that purpose, experiments are conducted in a statistically steady turbulent pipe flow, ramp-type accelerating/decelerating turbulent pipe flow and turbulent Taylor-Couette flow. For the first two flows, time-resolved data is acquired in the cross section of the pipe with stereoscopic PIV. The databases spanning over a friction Reynolds number range of Re⌧ = 340−1259 are utilised to study coherent motions, in particular the large-scale motions and the internal shear layers bounding them. For the turbulent Taylor-Couette flow study, in addition to torque measurements, high resolution stereoscopic-PIV measurements are performed in the radial-axial planes to investigate the hysteresis phenomenon in the system. @en

This paper describes the hysteresis in the torque for Taylor–Couette flow in the turbulent flow regime for different shear Reynolds numbers, aspect ratios and boundary conditions. The hysteresis increases with decreasing shear Reynolds number and becomes more pronounced as the aspect ratio is increased from 22 to 88. Measurements conducted in two different Taylor–Couette set-ups depict the effect of the flow conditions at the ends of the cylinders on the flow hysteresis by showing reversed hysteresis behaviour. In addition, the flow structure in the different branches of the hysteresis loop was investigated by means of stereoscopic particle image velocimetry. The results show that the dominant flow structures differ in shape and magnitude depending on the branch of the hysteresis loop. Hence, it can be concluded that the geometry could have an effect on the hysteresis behaviour of turbulent Taylor–Couette flow, but its occurrence is related to a genuine change in the flow dynamics.

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