RESEARCH ARTICLE Eulerian and Lagrangian views of a turbulent boundary layer flow using time-resolved tomographic PIV A. Schro ¨der • R. Geisler • K. Staack • G. E. Elsinga • F. Scarano • B. Wieneke • A. Henning • C. Poelma • J. Westerweel Received: 16 November 2009 / Revised: 2 November 2010 / Accepted: 17 November 2010 / Published online: 12 December 2010 Ó Springer-Verlag 2010 Abstract Coherent structures and their time evolution in the logarithmic region of a turbulent boundary layer investigated by means of 3D space–time correlations and time-dependent conditional averaging techniques are the focuses of the present paper. Experiments have been per- formed in the water tunnel at TU Delft measuring the particle motion within a volume of a turbulent boundary layer flow along a flat plate at a free-stream velocity of 0.53 m/s at Re h = 2,460 based on momentum thickness by using time-resolved tomographic particle image veloci- metry (PIV) at 1 kHz sampling rate and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV). The obtained data enable an investi- gation into the flow structures in a 3D Eulerian reference frame within time durations corresponding to 28 d/U. An analysis of the time evolution of conditional averages of vorticity components representing inclined hairpin-like legs and of Q2- and Q4-events has been performed, which gives evidence to rethink the early stages of the classical hairpin development model for high Reynolds number TBLs. Furthermore, a PTV algorithm has been applied on the time sequences of reconstructed 3D particle image distributions identifying thousands of particle trajectories that enable the calculation of probability distributions of the three components of Lagrangian accelerations. Abbreviations DNS Direct numerical simulations HWA Hot-wire anemometry LDA Laser Doppler anemometry LSE Linear stochastic estimation MART Multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique PDF Probability density function PIV Particle image velocimetry Present Address: A. Schro ¨der (&)  R. Geisler  K. Staack  A. Henning Deutsches Zentrum fu ¨r Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut f. Aerodynamik und Stro ¨mungstechnik, Bunsenstrasse 10, 37073 Go ¨ttingen, Germany e-mail: andreas.schroeder@dlr.de R. Geisler e-mail: reinhard.geisler@dlr.de G. E. Elsinga Department of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Leeghwaterstraat 21, 2628 CA Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: g.e.elsinga@tudelft.nl F. Scarano Department of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: f.scarano@tudelft.nl B. Wieneke La Vision GmbH, Anna-Vandenhoeck-Ring 19, 37081 Go ¨ttingen, Germany e-mail: bwieneke@lavision.de A. Henning Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany C. Poelma  J. Westerweel Laboratory for Aero- and Hydrodynamics, Delft University of Technology, Leeghwaterstraat 21, 2628 CA Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: c.poelma@tudelft.nl J. Westerweel e-mail: j.westerweel@tudelft.nl 123 Exp Fluids (2011) 50:1071–1091 DOI 10.1007/s00348-010-1014-x