Modeling laminar-to-turbulent transition in a low-pressure turbine flow which is unsteady due to passing wakes: Part II, transition path

Modeling of transition often is done with an algebraic model for predicting the onset and a path model for describing the evolution from the laminar state to the fully turbulent state. This paper discusses the path model. A companion paper addresses onset modeling. A predicted intermittency distribution from a model that includes the influence of wakes, as in gas turbine flows, is compared against data taken from an experiment conducted at the University of Minnesota. There is good agreement between model and experiment at the beginning of the transition process with poor agreement farther downstream. The inability of the model to capture the strong intermittent behavior caused by the wakes in the comparison case is thought to be the reason for the poor comparison of the time-averaged intermittency in the downstream portion of the transitional flow.