An assessment of the turbulent boundary layer flow structure, which is coherent with the near-wall region, is carried out through a spectral coherence analysis. This spectral method is applied to datasets comprising synchronized two-point streamwise velocity signals at a near-wall reference position and a range of wall-normal positions spanning a Reynolds-number range $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}\sim O(10^{3}){-}O(10^{6})$ . Within each dataset, a self-similar structure is identified from the coherence between the turbulence in the logarithmic region and at the near-wall reference position. This self-similarity is described by a streamwise/wall-normal aspect ratio of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{x}/z\approx 14$ , where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{x}$ and $z$ are the streamwise wavelength and wall-normal distance respectively.

For wall-bounded flows, the model of Marusic et al. [ Science 329, 193 (2010)] allows one to predict the statistics of the streamwise fluctuating velocity in the inner region, from a measured input signal in the logarithmic region. Normally, a user-defined large-scale portion of the input forms the large-scale content in the prediction by scaling its amplitude, as well as temporally shifting the signal to account for the physical inclination of these scales. Incoherent smaller scales are then fused to the prediction via universally expressed fluctuations that are subject to an amplitude modulation. Here we present a refined version of the model using spectral linear stochastic estimation, which eliminates a user-defined scale separation of the input. Now, an empirically derived transfer kernel comprises an implicit filtering via a scale-dependent gain and phase; this kernel captures the coherent portion in the prediction. An additional refinement of the model embodies a relative shift between the stochastically estimated scales in the prediction and the modulation envelope of the universal small scales. Predictions over a three-decade span of Reynolds numbers, ${\text{Re}}_{\tau }\sim O\left({10}^3\right)$ to $O\left({10}^6\right)$, highlight promising applications of the refined model to high-Reynolds-number flows, in which coherent scales become the primary contributor to the fluctuating energy.

The classical view of wall-bounded turbulence considers a near-wall inner region where all velocity statistics are universally dependent on distance from the wall when scaled with friction velocity and the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. This is referred to as an inner scaling and leads to Prandtl's law of the wall. Data from numerical simulations and experiments over the past decade or so, however, have provided compelling evidence that statistics of the fluctuating streamwise velocity do not follow inner scaling in this near-wall region and an interaction of outer and logarithmic regions exists, resulting in a Reynolds number dependence. In this paper we briefly review some of these studies and discuss the Reynolds number dependence of the streamwise turbulence intensity near the wall in terms of an inner-outer interaction. An established model for such an interaction between near-wall and logarithmic region turbulence is considered that comprises two mechanisms: superposition and modulation. Here outer-region motions, of which a fraction is wall-attached, are superimposed onto the near-wall dynamics, and concurrently the near-wall motions are modulated by this superimposed signature. We discuss to what extent the superposition effect can relate changes in the inner-scaled near-wall peak value of streamwise turbulence intensity to logarithmic region turbulence resembling features of attached eddies.

In wall-bounded turbulence, a multitude of coexisting turbulence structures form the streamwise velocity energy spectrum from the viscosity- to the inertia-dominated range of scales. Definite scaling-trends for streamwise spectra have remained empirically elusive, although a prominent school of thought stems from the works of Perry & Abell (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 79, 1977, pp. 785–799) and Perry et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 165, 1986, pp. 163–199), which were greatly inspired by the attached-eddy hypothesis of Townsend (The Structure of Turbulent Shear Flow, Cambridge University Press, 1976). In this paper, we re-examine the turbulence kinetic energy of the streamwise velocity component in the context of the spectral decompositions of Perry and co-workers. Two universal spectral filters are derived via spectral coherence analysis of two-point velocity signals, spanning a Reynolds-number range .