On the applicability of various scaling laws to the turbulent wall jet

The spatial distribution of the mean velocity in a two-dimensional turbulent wall jet was measured for a variety of nozzle Reynolds numbers. It was determined that the bulk of the flow is self-similar and it depends on the momentum flux at the nozzle and on the viscosity and density of the fluid. The width of the nozzle which was commonly used to reduce these data has no part in the similarity considerations as has already been suggested by Narasimha et al. (1973). This type of self-similarity can be easily applied to determine the skin friction, which can otherwise only be determined with considerable difficulty. It was also shown that the ⁶ law of the wall ’ applies only to the viscous sublayer. The Reynolds stress in the inviscid, inner portion of the flow is not constant thus the assumption of a ‘constant stress layer⁵is not applicable. The applicability and universality of the ‘outer scaling law⁵(i.e. Coles⁵law of the wake) has been verified throughout the inviscid inner portion of the wall jet. The logarithmic velocity distribution cannot be derived by making the usual assumptions based on the constancy of the Reynolds stresses or on the thinness of the logarithmic region relative to the thickness of the inner layer.