An assessment of the ability of power laws to describe the mean velocity profile in the overlap region of a zero pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer is reported. The experiments were performed in a wind tunnel on smooth and four different types of rough surfaces at moderate Reynolds numbers. A novel modification to the power law velocity profile is proposed to account for the effect of surface roughness in the overlap region. This modification is analogous to the use of a roughness function to produce a downward shift in the logarithmic velocity profile. The roughness parameters in the proposed equation more accurately follow the effect of roughness on skin friction than does the roughness shift The present study shows that power laws can be used to effectively describe the mean velocity profile over a wider range than a log law for both smooth and rough surfaces.
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