Experiments in Fluids lt, 351 358 (1991)
Ex riments in Fluids
Experimental testing of Taylor's hypothesis
by L.D.A. in highly turbulent flow
A. Cenedese and G. P. Romano
Dept. of Mechanics and Aeronautics, University of Rome "La Sapienza" Via Eudossiana 18, 1-00185, Rome Italy
E Di Felice
C.I.R.A (Italian Aerospace Research Center) Via Maiorise, 81043, Capua Italy
Abstract. A new configuration for the transmitting optics of a laser
Doppler anemometer has been developed in order to measure the
velocity at two different points at the same time. From the simulta-
neous measurements at two points along the mean flow direction it
is possible to evaluate the spatial correlations and to compare them
with the temporal correlation to verify the validity limits of Taylor's
hypothesis also known as the frozen turbulence hypothesis. The
transfer function between the velocity signals at two different points
has been introduced to better explain the differences between Tay-
lot's hypothesis and non frozen flow. The analysis is carried out in
a flow with high turbulence levels.
1 Introduction
In the analysis of turbulent phenomena, the evaluation of the
Eulerian correlation in time and space assumes particular
relevance. F r o m these correlations the quantities character-
izing the turbulent flow may be determined (integral scales,
dissipation scales, Reynolds stresses, power spectra .... ).
The time correlation, in the case of steady flow and with
the hypothesis of ergodic phenomenon, is evaluated by the
time average of two velocity components measured at the
same point. These correlations can be successfully evaluated
also for complex flows with recirculation zones, using a laser
Doppler system which allows the simultaneous acquisition
of two velocity components with two orthogonal fringe sys-
tems of different colours (Durst et al. 1976; Drain 1980).
The spatial correlations are connected with the evalua-
tion of energy transfer through wave numbers by means of
the Lin equation. It is possible to obtain the spatial correla-
tions from the time correlations by means of Taylor's or
frozen turbulence hypothesis (Taylor 1938). According to
this hypothesis, in a homogeneous turbulent flow field, the
velocity fluctuations in time at a point are the same as the
instantaneous distribution of spatial fluctuations in the
mean flow direction.
The validity of this hypothesis has been verified theoreti-
cally, numerically and experimentally (Lumley 1965; Cham-
pagne et al. 1970; Piomelli et al. 1989). This hypothesis is
valid particularly in the case of isotropic turbulence for a
9 Springer-Verlag 1991
large Reynolds number and for small turbulent intensity as
shown by Lin (1953). Several researchers have studied this
problem for jets (Fisher and Davies 1964) and boundary
layers (Favre et al. 1953; 1958), but for different kinds of
flows the limit of this hypothesis is still not clear.
In the past, in order to experimentally verify Taylor's
hypothesis, the measurement of spatial correlation was
made with hot wire anemometry. In this case, when the wires
are placed in the mean flow direction, the wake generated by
the upstream wire substantially alters the downstream flow
field, especially for small distances despite the use of probes
of extremely small dimensions: for these reasons the data
must be corrected. Corrsin and Comte-Bellot (1966) have
shown that when using a hot wire the error due to the wake
of the upstream probe can be reduced by placing the down-
steam probe outside the disturbance cone. The misalignment
with the mean flow direction is about 3 ~ 5 ~. The value of the
spatial correlation can be extrapolated from the measure-
ment outside the wake transversally to the mean flow direc-
tion. These corrections, that are very important in obtaining
the exact values of the spatial correlation, are complicated
and are subject to criticism. In fact, the differences between
the spatial correlation measured with the downstream wire
directly behind the upstream wire and the other obtained by
extrapolation, can reach 15%.
The aim of this work is to verify experimentally Taylor's
hypothesis in a pipe with a rectangular cross section, where
high and different levels of turbulence intensity are obtained
using a non-intrusive laser Doppler anemometer. It is possi-
ble to measure simultaneously the velocity at two different
points with a new configuration of the transmitting optics.
Two couples of beams are focused with two half-lenses and
the relative movement of the measurement volumes is con-
trolled with micrometric screws.
2 Taylor's hypothesis
In a steady turbulent flow field with a mean velocity
U= (U1,0, 0) in the x 1 direction, Taylor's hypothesis allows
352
Taylor's hypothesis
.............................
i ............................................................
/ ,
i
II
Fig. 1. Wiring diagram of Smol'yakov and Tkachenko 1983, show-
ing also the connections that Taylor's hypothesis can activate only
for separations parallel to the mean flow direction
us to obtain a relation between a partial time derivative and
a partial spatial derivative at a point for a generic turbulent
quantity:
O(...) = 0 or a(...) a(...)
D~ at - U 1 ax 1
so that for the velocity fluctuations it is possible to write:
u(x, t ) = u ( x + U 3; t + 3)
Consequently the following relationship between correla-
tions in space (3 = 0) and correlation in time ( r = 0) can be
written (Hinze 1975; Monin and Yaglom 1965):
R(0, 0, O; 3)= R(U~ 3; 0, 0; 0)
R (r; 3) is the space-time correlation between the velocities at
two different points at a distance r=(r~, r2, r3) and 3 is a lag
time. Following the wiring diagram of Smol'yakov and
Tkachenko (1983), the possible relationships that Taylor's
hypothesis can activate, are shown in Fig. 1 where P(r; f ) is
the power spectrum in the domain of frequency f, B (k; 3) is
the power spectrum in the domain of wave numbers k, and
E (k; f ) is the power spectrum in the domain of frequency
and wave numbers together.
+oo +oo
Btl)(kl,3)= ~ ~ B(k;3) dk 2 dk 3
-ct) -0tD
is the unidimensional power spectrum in the direction of the
mean flow. This figure states how it is possible to pass from
one quantity to another (direction of the arrows) with gener-
ally forward and back time-space Fourier transforms or
more simple operations. Passing from the center to the pe-
ripheral zones of the figure, information is lost and it is not
possible to go back. The relationship between R(r; 0) and
R(0; 3) is possible only if r is parallel to the mean flow
Experiments in Fluids 11 (1991)
direction, r=(U1 r, 0, 0), while the one between P(0; f ) and
B tl)(kl; 0) is possible only for k 1 = 2 n f / U ~ . The relation-
"i
ship between R (r; T) and R (0; 3), that is always valid only for
r parallel to the mean flow direction, is explained later in the
text.
3 Experimental set up
For the simultaneous acquisition of the velocity from two
different points in a flow field using LDA, Pfeifer (1986)
suggests an optical configuration in which a second mea-
surement volume is obtained by refocusing the same beams
that are used to obtain the first one by means of a spherical
mirror. The relative distance between the measurement vol-
ume is controlled by the rotation of the mirror. The receiving
optics are able to separate the information coming from the
measurement points by using a forward scatter collection
method. Nakatani et al. (1985) use a diffraction grating to
generate several couples of beams that are focused in several
measurement points. Two-point velocity correlations were
also measured, for turbulent flow of water in a circular pipe,
by using two independent laser Doppler anemometers (Mor-
ton and Clark 1971).
In order to simultaneously measure the velocity at two
different points, a new arrangement is proposed for the
transmitting optics which allows a simpler control of the
(1)
relative position between the two measurement points
(Fig. 2). Four beams (2 cyan, 1 green, 1 blue) are obtained by
beam splitters and color separator. The two cyan beams are
(2)
shifted in frequency by two Bragg's cells. Each couple of
beams (cyan-green and cyan-blue) is focused, after a beam
expander, at two different points with two half lenses with a
focal length of 30 cm. The dimensions of the measurement
(3) volumes are about 0.2 mm in the direction of the mean flow.
The relative movement between the measurement volumes
can be handled by micrometric screws with a resolution of
10 lam and with a maximum separation distance of 1 cm.
Two photomultipliers, fitted with narrow band color filters
(blue and green), are used to receive the scattered light. The
Doppler signals are elaborated by two trackers and after
low-pass filtering at 200 Hz they are acquired with an
anolog/digital converter and handled by a PC. Due to the
high density of Ti 0 2 particles of about 5 lam in the flow, the
signals coming from the photomultipliers are almost con-
tinuous; so the percentage of drop outs of the trackers is very
(4) low (less than 1%). Problems with the measurement accura-
cy can arise if the Doppler signals are not continuous be-
cause the values of the velocity signals are fixed at the time
instants of the drop outs.
The test section is a rectangular duct of height h = 2 cm,
width w = 6 cm and length / = 4 0 cm, fed by a tank with
variable heigth in order to maintain the feeding pressure
constant and where we obtain high and different levels of
turbulent intensity due to the decay of the turbulent flow
field. The mean velocity is 24 cm/s corresponding to a
A. Cenedese et al.: Experimental testing of Taylor's hypothesis by L.D.A. in highly turbulent flow 353

Beam splitter
Cyan J Beam splitter
~ ~ Doubl.e Bragg's celt

~ _ - ~ . : ~ Beam translator
~ L ~ - = ~ ~--~..._.J Beam expander

~ - ~ X 3

Fig. 2. Experimental optical set-up for two-points correlations /- ~

10 3 i , , , , i 'Ji I I I I I I I 10 0 ~- I ~,,~,, I ,,,,~l I

,, { U / u ' ) 2
x 1/h =4
9 (U/v') 2
10-2 ''....

A~
A ~...

"U
10 2 10"z,
A N

9 N
o~
\.
m
n
\
0
10-6
\
a
104 II
101100 t , , , , , ,,I , , , , , ,, I I I I
101 10 2
Xl/h
Fig. 3. Decay of normalized turbulent intensity of the streamwise
and transversal velocity components along the duct; U1 is the flow
mean velocity, h is the duct height 10 0 '"1 ' ' '""1
I I I I
=
It

x~ / h =1/.,
9 - .......
10-2
Reynolds number of 4,800. The turbulent intensity, u'~/U 1 , at "-,..

the center of the channel is 20% at the beginning of the test

section and 7% at the end. The decay of turbulence intensity
is shown in Fig. 3. ~- 10-~
Two different sources of turbulence are observed in the o
\
channel: the honeycomb and the walls. At the inlet turbu-
lence is created by the honeycomb and, at the end, replaced 10-6 ~--
by turbulence generated by the bounday layers, developing
along the pipe from the walls, and merging after 20 cm from
the inlet. This fact can be observed by examining the change
of the slope at x l / h = 10 in the diagram of the decay of the 10-8 I b I I I I III

turbulence intensity, as well as in the power spectra of the 10-1 10 0 101 102
streamwise velocity component at the beginning and at the
end of the test section. The first power spectrum shows a Fig. 4 a and b. Power spectra of the streamwise velocity component
at the beginning (xl/h=4) and at the end (xt/h=14) of the test
large frequency interval with slope - 5/3, while in the second section; the frequency is non-dimensionalized with the height of the
one observes a change of the slope, from - 5 / 3 to - 1 , that section h and with the mean flow velocity U~. The sampling frequen-
is common to wall flows (Fig. 4). cy is 3,500 Hz
354 Experiments in Fluids 11 (1991)

5 i i i i i i i i i

~/=
-5 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

5 i i 1 i t i ; i i ) i i i I i i i I I I I I I I I I I

,?N

a q / h = 0.05 b r1/h = 0.20 o q / h = 0.35

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
-5 0 ' , , ) 5, , , , , 10 0 5 10 5 10
UI"t / h UI" t / h U1. t/h~ i,
Fig. 5 a - e . Time history of the normalized velocity fluctuations of the streamwise velocity component at two points separated along the mean
flow direction by a distance rl

1.o F-.~
p \o
. . . . . . . .
xl/h :7 ~ 1

X 1/h = 10
i i i i i i i

I , \ - - T o y t o r , ' s hypothesis 9 ~,, --Taytor,'s hypothesis L 9 ~ - - T a y [ o r , ' s hypothesis

0.8 i- \ ~ measured, rl> 0 " ~ , a meosured, rl>O ~ meosured, rl>O
" , ' ~ n " meosured, q<O

9 El
9 El

0.2

b
' ' ' 0.3
' ' ' ' ' 0.6 0 ' ' ' ' 'o.
"3 ' ' ' 0.6 0 ' ' ' ' "o.3 ' ' ' ' 0.6
G/h ), rI/h -~ q/h ~-
Fig. 6 a - e . Comparison between the streamwise velocity component autocorrelation coefficient (continuous line) and space-correlation
coefficient (dots) for positive and negative displacements at different normalized distances xl/h from the inlet; the autocorrelation is calculated
from the measured data

1.0 I r i I i i I i I i i i i i ) i i i i i r i I i I

X~/h : 7 x l / h =10 ~" X1/h --13

e ~ .
0.8 m\ -- Taytor's hypothesis ,~ -- ayLor"s hypothesis \ --Toytor's hypothesis

I 0.6

& 0.4

0.2

El I~l
a I! El
I I I I I I I I I I I I I : ml I I I
' ' ~ ~ 013 ' ' ~ ~ 0.6 0.3 0.6 0 03 0.6
q/h q/h q/h ),
Fig. 7 a - c . Comparison between the transverse velocity component autocorrelation coefficient (continuous line) and space-correlation
coefficient (dots) for positive displacements at different normalized distances xl/h from the inlet; the auto-correlation is calculated from the
measured data.
A. Cenedese et al.: Experimental testing of Taylor's hypothesis by L.D.A. in highly turbulent flow 355

4 Results

The analog output signals of the trackers, which are propor-

tional to the instantaneous velocity components of the flow,
are sampled with a frequency of 500 Hz for a time of 60
' oo:;;
seconds.
Figure 5 shows the time history of the velocity fluctua- t It t(\A
,.,,., ,\ .o. o
tions ut (t) normalized to the standard deviation u'~ taken in
two different points, the first A placed at a distance xl/h and
t
the second B at the distance (x~ +rl)/h from the inlet, in the
center line of the channel9 It is possible to point out a phase
shift between the velocity fluctuations and a deformation of
the downstream signal with respect to the upstream signal
_{:o., i
that increases with the distance between the two points.
0 . 2 ~
From these signals it is possible to evaluate the time correla-
tion and, by using Taylor's hypothesis, transform them into
space correlations as shown by relation (3), so that it is
possible to compare the evaluated space correlations with 0o
those measured directly. u<tlh
If the phenomenon is ergodic, the time correlation coeffi- Fig. 8. Space-time correlation coefficient of the transversal velocity
cient is evaluated by time averaging: component vs non-dimensional time lag for different normalized
separation distances rt/h
1 i ul (xl, x2, x3 ; t) uj (xl, X:, x 3 ; t + z)
(0, 0, 0; Z)
0 Ul (X1, X2, X3 ) t/$(XI' X2, X3) dt
=e*j (u,. z, o, o; o) (5) fact, it is possible to write for the velocity fluctuations from
The estimated space correlation coefficient Q*~(U1 z, 0, 0; 0) is (2) for r 1 = U1 z:
compared to the space correlation obtained with the simul-
uj(xl +rl, x2, x3; y)=u~ (xl, x2, x3; ? - z ) , (9)
taneous measurements of the velocity at two different points
along the mean flow direction: that can also be written using the Dirac function 5 (t):
1 TUi(XI,X2,X3; t ) u i ( x l + r l , x 2 , x 3 ; t)
~ij (ri, 0, 0; 0) = ~ ! , , dt uj(x l + r l , x 2 , x 3 ; ? ) - u j ( x l , x 2 , x 3;fl) 6 ( f l - ? + z ) d f l ,
ul (x~, x2, x3) uj(x~ +r~, x2, x~) 0
(6) (10)
Figures 6 and 7 show the estimated and measured correla-
so that for the space-time correlation the following relation-
tion coefficients 0 ~~ and Q22, in the center line of the channel
ships can be written (? = t + a; fl-- t + a):
and at different sections that are at various levels of turbu-
lent intensity9 Since in Taylor's hypothesis the velocity defor- 1 T
Rij (r 1 , 0, 0; a)= -~ ! u i (xl, xz, x3; t) (11)
mation is not considered, the real values of spatial correla-
tion are generally different from those estimated with this 9uj(x~ +rl,x2,x3; t+a) dt
hypothesis. The best agreement is for the lower values of the
separation distance. The difference between the measured
and estimated space correlations increases with the separa-
=z i x2, 3; t) (12)
Too
tion distance r~. 9u~ (Xl, xz, xa; t+(r) 5(a--a+z) da dt
The flow field is not homogeneous, so that the space
correlation coefficient is not symmetric9 In fact, due to the which is:
decay of the turbulence, for negative value of r~, the mea- oo
sured space correlation coefficient Q1~ has a lower value than R u (r 1 , 0, 0; a) = S R~j (0, 0, 0; cr) 6 ( a - a + z ) dt
0
for positive values of r~ (Fig. 6); it is possible to write for the
standard deviation of the velocity fluctuations: = R ~ (0, 0, 0; a - z ) . (13)

u'~(x~-rl, x~, x3)>u'~(x~ +r~, x~, x3),
and with Eq. (6):
~ ( - r l , 0, 0; 0)<0~1 (r~, 0, 0; 0).
With the frozen hypothesis, the space-time correlation
R(r; z) can be obtained from the autocorrelation R(0; z). In
(7) The relation (13) states that the space-time correlation can
be obtained, in the case of frozen flow and only for
r = (U1 z, 0, 0), by shifting in time the autocorrelation R(0; ~);
Eq. (13) explains also the connection in the diagramm of
(8)
Smol'yakov (Fig. 1).
The space-time correlation coefficients Q22(r~, 0, 0; z) are
shown in Fig. 8. The maximum in these space time correla-
 356 Experiments in Fluids 11 (1991)

Re
Re

~ . "~"~ m No frozen turbulence / ,,'k L ~x~ 9 No frozen turbulence

-1.1, -1.~- . - . .0 1.l, - 1.1, - 1 . 1 . ~ - . .0 1.1,

-1 -1
Re Re

'-.x,x\ -- Toylor's hypothesis , -- Toylor's hypothesis

% ~ x No frozen turbulence - - 9 No frozen turbulence
\ r1/h= 0.25 r1/h : 0.35

x ,,,~,exi? Im
-1./, - , - . '
o 1.1. -1.1.

Fig. 9. Real vs Imaginary ~art of the transfer function for increasing frequencies; the arrow shows the direction of higher frequencies. The
data for Taylor's hypothesis (continuous lines) are calculated from spectral measurements in the first point, while the real data (dots) are
measured in two points. Four different separation distances are considered

tions is obtained when r i = Ul z and decreases with increas- B = (x i + r 1 , x2, X3), and Pii (0, 0, 0; f ) is the power spectrum
ing r 1 . The decreasing of this maximum is not considered by of the i component in A. Another useful definition of the
Taylor's hypothesis, since it does not consider the deformation transfer function, equivalent to the previous one (Bendat and
of the velocity fluctuation field moving downstream with the Piersol 1971), is the following:
mean velocity. The quantities 1 - - m a x [ ~ , ( h , 0, 0; z)] can
be assumed to be the measurement of the velocity deforma- H q (rl, 0, 0; f ) = ~ (X1 At-/'1' X2' X3; t)]
tion. OJ[UI(Xl, XZ, X3; t] ' (15)

where ~,~ (...) means time Fourier transform. In the case of

Taylor's hypothesis, by using the properties of Fourier trans-
5 Transfer function form and relation (1), it is possible to write
[ u ( h , O, 0; t)] = ~-[ui (0, 0, 0; t)] e a2~I~ , (16)
The deformation of the velocity signals can be identified also
by considering the transfer function between velocity com- where .~ is the imaginary unit; for the modulus Mil and the
ponents defined by phase ~bll, when i = j , the following relationships can be
written:
Pij (ri, 0, O; f )
H i j (rl, O, 0; f ) - , (14) MZi = I H , (rl, 0, 0; f ) l : = {I m [Hi i (r~, 0, 0; f)]}z (17)
Pii (0, 0, 0; f )
+ {Re [Hi i (r l, O, O; f)]} 2 = 1
where P~j(r~, 0, 0 ; f ) is the cross-spectrum between the i
component measured at the upstream point A - - ( x l , x2, x3) c~ " (Im[Hii(rl,0, O;f)])
ii = arctan ~. . . . . } 2~ z f. (18)
and the j component measured at the downstream point ( R e [Hi i (r l, 0, 0; f)] J
A. Cenedese et al.: Experimental testing of Taylor's hypothesis by L.D.A. in highly turbulent flow 357

1.2 I I 30 ~ , , , j , , / , ,

-- To.y[or's h y p o t h e s i s /
, . . ,_ ,
r1 / h = 0.05
24 . /h,o15 // /
r
9~. -- Taylor's hypothesis o

-'~ m r1/h =0.05

18

13-
5-

I I I I I I ~ t ~'o'-'~e I'r'~, 0 _ ~R"B'r~-- I I I I I I I i

0 3.2 6.4 9.6 12.8 16.0 3.2 6.4 9.6 12.8 16.0
f .h/U~ ~,- f .h/U 1 ~--
Fig. 10. Transfer function modulus vs non-dimensional frequency; Fig. 11. Transfer function phase (in radians) vs non-dimensional
the continuous line shows the results from Taylor's hypothesis on frequency; the continuous lines show the results from Taylor's hy-
the measured data, while the dots are used for the real data at pothesis on the measured data, while the dots are used for the real
different separation distances. The resolution is four times smaller data at different separation distances. The resolution is four times
than in Fig. 9 smaller than in Fig. 9

Taylor's hypothesis transfer function is an ideal phase shifter: In fact the Kolmogorov time microscale is for the considered
the modulus is constant in frequency while the phase is linear experiment:
in frequency. Equation (17) represents a circle in the plane
Imaginary part I m versus Real part Re, while eq. (18) is a Zk = = 7.5 m s , (20)
straight line in the plane ~ versus f . When the turbulence is
not frozen, this is not true. The transfer function where v is the kinematic viscosity and e is the energy dissipa-
Hz2 (r 1, 0, 0; f ) is shown in Fig. 9 for different separation tion evaluated using the hypothesis of isotropic turbulence
distances, in the plane real part versus imaginary part with (Hinze 1975):
a frequency spacing A f . h/Ul=O.163. Figures 10 and 11
show, with a frequency resolution four times smaller than ~= 15 vu'2/2g. (21)
the resolution of Fig. 9, the modulus and the phase of the
transfer function, and these are compared with the case of In the dimensionless frequency f~. h the Kolmogorov mi-
Taylor's hypothesis. The transfer function is a useful way to croscale is about 11. z k is the time for the smaller struc-
give evidence of the energy transfer from the low frequencies tures to be destroyed. For separation distances larger than
to the higher ones (energy cascade), since it represents the r l / h > U~zk/h~0.2 the smallest structures are replaced by
amount of information that from the point A is transfered to others that have no correlation with the previous ones, due
the point B. The quantity to the phenomenon of the energy cascade. For this phe-
nomenon the energy destroyed at the frequency of Kol-
T(r0= ~ IHij (r~, O, 0; f)l df (19) m o g o r o v is replaced by the energy coming from the lower
0 frequencies; with increasing r 1 also the velocity fluctuations
h
can be assumed to be related to the amount of energy trans- at a frequency lower of z ~ - ' begin to have less correlation.
ferred from A to B. The transport mechanism of turbulent
For these reasons the cut-off frequency of H22 (rl, 0, 0; f ) as
velocity fluctuations between the upstream point A and the well as T(r~) are monotonically decreasing functions of the
downstream B is like a low pass filter with the cut-off separation distance, r~, as shown by Fig. 10.
frequency that is a function of the separation distance rt.
In the frozen flow all the eddies travel at the mean velocity
Figures 10 and 11 point out that the frequencies higher than
U~, so a linear law between phase and frequency can be
the one connected to the Kolmogorov time microscale Zk, are
written:
destroyed, also for small separation distances, and only for
low frequencies Taylor's hypothesis can be considered valid. f . ~ = f . r l / U 1 = qS. (22)
358 Experiments in Fluids 11 (1991)

1101 I I I I I I I fact, this technique allows the measurement of the spatial

rl/h
m 0.05
9 0.15
88
,~ 0.25
* 0.35
9~ 66
# z,4
#
22
0 deformation of the eddies and to point out the limit of
0.3
U 1 9t/h .,,
Fig. 12. Transfer function vs non-dimensional time for several sepa-
ration distances (dots); the Taylor's hypothesis data are represented
by a Dirac function in the origin
In the real flow, a deviation from this law can be observed
in Fig. 11, so the relation (22) becomes
f " z = f . r i / U * ( f ) = ~b,
which means that each eddy travels at a velocity U * ( f )
depending on its frequency:
U*(f)=f " rl
F o r high frequencies the phase shift between input and out-
put seems to become constant. This means that the velocity
of the smaller turbulent structures is a linear function of
frequency, in agreement with Fisher and Davies (1964), who
found a linear law between convective-velocity U~' ( f ) and
frequency, by measuring the n a r r o w b a n d filtered crosscor-
relations between the velocity signals from two measurement
points.
The transfer function in the time d o m a i n is shown in
Fig. 12 for several separation distances. It represents the
back time F o u r i e r transform of H (rx, 0, 0; f ) which is the
impulse response of the system. While a pulse from point A
travels, the deformation takes place as shown. The dispersiv-
ity of the p h e n o m e n a can be clearly seen from this figure. In
fact, the broadening of the input pulse, increasing with sepa-
ration distance, depends on the fact that each frequency
composing the pulse, travels with a different convection ve-
locity U * ( f ) .
6 Conclusions
A real direct testing of Taylor's hypothesis is possible only by
using a non intrusive measurement technique like L D A
providing a D o p p l e r signal that is almost continuous. In
correlations without using wake corrections. F o r high tur-
bulence levels Taylor's hypothesis is substantially correct for
small separation distances especially for large structures. As
previously observed by other researchers, the smallest turbu-
lent structures travel with velocities larger than the mean
flow velocity U 1 .
The Taylor length microscale, defined by the curvature of
the spatial correlation for r 1 = 0, is in good agreement with
that evaluated by means of Taylor's hypothesis, since only
for time intervals r ~ 0, the flow can be considered frozen.
Significant errors can be made in the calculation of the
integral scales of turbulence in using Taylor's hypothesis,
since the deformation of the fluid flow is not considered.
By using the transfer function between the velocity fluctu-
ation at two points it is possible to better describe, by show-
ing the energy transfer from low to higher frequency, the
0.6
Taylor's hypothesis.
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Drain, L. E. 1980: The laser Doppler anemometry. New York: John
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Received November 13, 1990