Turbulent boundary layer response to uniform changes of the pressure force contribution

We investigate a turbulent boundary layer (TBL) under uniform pressure force variations, focusing on understanding its response to local pressure force, local pressure force variation (local disequilibrating effect) and upstream history. The flow starts as a zero-pressure-gradient (ZPG) TBL, followed by a uniform increase in the ratio of pressure force to turbulent force in the outer region and concludes with a uniform decrease of the same magnitude. This last zone includes a subzone with a diminishing adverse pressure gradient (APG), followed by an increasing favourable pressure gradient (FPG). In both subzones, the impact remains the same: mean momentum gain and turbulence reduction. In the outer region, the mean flow responds to force balance changes with a considerable delay. The accumulated flow history leads to a FPG TBL at the domain’s end with a momentum defect comparable to APG TBLs. Below y⁺ = 10, the mean flow responds almost instantaneously to pressure force changes. In the overlap layer, velocity profiles deviate from the conventional logarithmic law of ZPG TBL. Outer-layer turbulence decays more slowly than it increases initially, the latter turbulence increase persisting even after the pressure force begins to decrease. As a result of the slow turbulence decay, the FPG TBL at the domain’s end exhibits unusually high outer turbulence levels. Near the wall, turbulence responds with a delay to pressure force changes, partly due to the influence of large-scale turbulence. All these significant cumulative effects of continuous pressure force variation indicate that parameters based solely on local variables cannot fully describe the physics of non-equilibrium TBLs.