Direct numerical simulations of three time-developing turbulent plane wakes have been performed. Initial conditions for the simulations were obtained using two realizations of a direct simulation from a turbulent boundary layer at momentum-thickness Reynolds number 670. In addition, extra two-dimensional disturbances were added in two of the cases to mimic two-dimensional forcing. The wakes are allowed to evolve long enough to attain approximate self-similarity, although in the strongly forced case this self-similarity is of short duration. For all three flows, the mass-flux Reynolds number (equivalent to the momentum-thickness Reynolds number in spatially developing wakes) is 2000, which is high enough for a short k−5/3 range to be evident in the streamwise one-dimensional velocity spectra.

The spreading rate, turbulence Reynolds number, and turbulence intensities all increase with forcing (by nearly an order of magnitude for the strongly forced case), with experimental data falling between the unforced and weakly forced cases. The simulation results are used in conjunction with a self-similar analysis of the Reynolds stress equations to develop scalings that approximately collapse the profiles from different wakes. Factors containing the wake spreading rate are required to bring profiles from different wakes into agreement. Part of the difference between the various cases is due to the increased level of spanwise-coherent (roughly two-dimensional) energy in the forced cases. Forcing also has a significant impact on flow structure, with the forced flows exhibiting more organized large-scale structures similar to those observed in transitional wakes.