Higher-order and length-scale statistics of velocity and temperature fluctuations in turbulent boundary layer along a heated vertical flat plate

Time-developing direct numerical simulation (DNS) was performed to clarify the higher-order turbulent behaviors in the thermally-driven boundary layers both in air and water along a heated vertical flat plate. The predicted statistics of the heat transfer rates and the higher-order turbulent behaviors such as skewness factors, flatness factors and spatial correlation coefficients of the velocity and temperature fluctuations in the natural-convection boundary layer correspond well with those obtained from experiments for space-developing flows. The numerical results reveal that the turbulent structures of the buoyancy-driven boundary layers are mainly controlled by the fluid motions in the outer region of the boundary layer, and these large-scale structures are strongly connected with the generation of turbulence in the thermally-driven boundary layers, in accordance with the actual observations for space-developing flows. Moreover, to specify the turbulence structures of the boundary layers, the cross-correlation coefficients and the characteristic length scales are examined for the velocity and thermal fields. Consequently, it is found that with a slight increase in freestream velocity, the cross-correlation coefficient for the Reynolds shear stress and turbulent heat flux increases for opposing flow and decreases for aiding flow, and the integral scales for the velocity and temperature fields become larger for opposing flow and smaller for aiding flow compared with those for the pure natural-convection boundary layer.