Near-field flow structure of a confined wall jet on flat and concave rough walls

Experimental results are presented of the mean flow and turbulence characteristics in the near field of a plane wall Jet issuing from a nozzle onto flat and concave walls consisting of fixed sand beds. This is a flow configuration of interest for sediment erosion, also referred to as scouring. The measurements were made with an acoustic profiler that gives access to the three components of the instantaneous velocities. For the flat-wall flow, it is shown that the outer-layer spatial growth rate and the maxima of the Reynolds stresses approach the values accepted for the far field of a wall jet at a downstream distance x/b(0) approximate to 8. These maxima are only about half the values of a plane free jet. This reduction in Reynolds stresses is also observed in the shear-layer region, x/b(0) < 6, where the Reynolds shear stress is about half the value of a free shear layer. At distances x/b(0) > 11, the maximum Reynolds shear stress approaches the value of a plane free jet. This change in Reynolds stresses is related to the mean vertical velocity that is negative for x/b(0) < 8 and positive further downstream. The evolution of the inner region of the wall jet is found to be in good agreement with a previous model that explicitly includes the roughness length. On the concave wall, the mean flow and the Reynolds stresses are drastically changed by the adverse pressure gradient and especially by the development of Gortler vortices. On the downslope side of the scour hole, the flow is nearly separating with the wall shear stress tending to zero, whereas on the upslope side, the wall-friction coefficient is increased by a factor of about two by Gortler vortices. These vortices extend well into the outer layer and, just above the wall, cause a substantial increase in Reynolds shear stress.