Exergetic aspects of high-speed boundary layers

Abstract

Exergy is an established concept for evaluating heat cycles. It quantifies the available work that can be extracted from a system. The extension of the classical definition to non-uniform flow field properties is applied here to high-speed boundary layers. The destruction of exergy is quantified by the corresponding loss thickness and is evaluated locally. Turbulent fluctuations in this approach are described by their turbulent exergy, which is a generalisation of the concept of turbulent kinetic energy for incompressible flow.