Turbulent boundary layers over streamwise-preferential porous materials

Recent numerical simulations indicate that streamwise-preferential anisotropic porous materials have the potential to reduce skin friction in turbulent flows through a similar mechanism to riblets. This paper reports particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements made in turbulent boundary layers at $Re_\tau \approx 360$ over 3D-printed porous substrates exhibiting such streamwise-preferential permeability. The porous material has normalized streamwise permeability $\sqrt{K_{xx}^+}\approx 3.0$ and wall-normal and spanwise permeabilities $\sqrt{K_{yy}^+} = \sqrt{K_{zz}^+} \approx 1.1$. This material is flush-mounted into a cutout in the downstream half of a flat-plate boundary layer setup in a water channel facility. Measurements made at several locations along the porous substrate provide insight into boundary layer development. For fully-developed conditions, the mean profiles show the presence of a logarithmic region over the porous material with similar constants to those found over a smooth wall. A technique that estimates the mean profile at single-pixel resolution from the particle images suggests the presence of an interfacial slip velocity of $U_s^+ \approx \sqrt{K_{xx}^+}$ over the porous substrate. Friction velocity estimates obtained from outer layer fits to the mean profile suggest a marginal increase in drag over the porous substrate. PIV measurements show a decrease in the intensity of streamwise velocity fluctuations in the near-wall region and an increase in the intensity of wall-normal velocity fluctuations. These observations are consistent with simulation results, which suggest that materials with $\sqrt{K_{yy}^+} > 0.4$ are susceptible to the emergence of spanwise rollers similar to Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices that degrade drag reduction performance. Velocity spectra indicate that such structures emerge in the experiments as well.