Multi-Point Velocity Correlations in the Wake of a Three-Dimensional Bluff Body

Three-dimensional bluff-bodies known as turrets are commonly used for housing optical systems on airborne platforms. These geometries generate highly turbulent wakes that decrease the performance of the optical systems and the aircraft. The current experimental study used dynamic suction in both open and closed-loop control configurations to actively control the wake turret. The experiments were carried out at a Reynolds number of 5x10$^5$, and the flow field was characterized using stereoscopic PIV measurements acquired in the wake of the turret. These data were processed using traditional single-point statistics which showed that the active control system was able to significantly alter the wake of the turret. Using multi-point correlations, turbulent characteristics such as the integral length scale can be calculated. For the turret wake, estimates of the integral length scales were found to be highly dependent upon the region of the flow that was evaluated, especially when comparing the shear layers to the center of the wake. With the application of the active control, the integral length scales were generally found to increase.