This volume contains a selection of the papers presented at the Eighth Symposium on Turbulent Shear Flows held at the Technical University of Munich, 9-11 September 1991. The first of these biennial international symposia was held at the Pennsylvania State Uni versity, USA, in 1977; subsequent symposia have been held at Imperial College, London, England; the University of California, Davis, USA; the University of Karlsruhe, Ger many; Cornell University, Ithaca, USA; the Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France; and Stanford University, California, USA. The purpose of this series of symposia is to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of new developments in the field of turbulence, especially as related to shear flows of importance in engineering and geo physics. From the 330 extended abstracts submitted for this symposium, 145 papers were presented orally and 60 as posters. Out of these, we have selected twenty-four papers for inclusion in this volume, each of which has been revised and extended in accordance with the editors' recommendations. The following four theme areas were selected after consideration of the quality of the contributions, the importance of the area, and the selection made in earlier volumes: - wall flows, - separated flows, - compressibility effects, - buoyancy, rotation, and curvature effects. As in the past, each section corresponding to the above areas begins with an introduction by an authority in the field that places the individual contributions in context with one another and with related research.

The method predicts that a positive pressure gradient increases and a negative pressure gradient decreases the ratio of Stanton number to friction coefficient. The Crocco relation between the velocity and total enthalpy for a non-adiabatic surface and zero pressure gradient is generalized to non-zero pressure gradient. The relation between the velocity and the total enthalpy varies markedly from the flat plate Crocco relation as the pressure gradient departs from zero. The magnitude of the variation depends on the velocity profile shape parameter. (Author).

An experimental program was conducted to investigate effects of roughness, and roughness superimposed on single and/or multiple, shallow, periodic waveforms, on turbulent boundary-layer skin friction and velocity profile, in compressible, adiabatic flow. Test conditions were Mach number = 2.9 and Reynolds number/ft = 2 million to 8 million. The planar models included smooth, sand-grain, machined and molded surface finishes. Direct measurements of surface shear and Pitot/recovery temperature profiles were obtained. (Modified author abstract).