Receptivity of boundary layers to three-dimensional disturbances

The 3D receptivity of 2D laminar boundary layers to localized surface vibrations has been investigated both experimentally and theoretically for two types of basic flow: (i) the Blasius boundary layer and (ii) a boundary layer with a negative streamwise pressure gradient (Hartree parameter β_H=0.10). For the boundary-layer excitation, a specially designed surface vibrator was used. The development of the excited wave-trains was measured by means of hot-wire anemometry and decomposed into oblique normal Tollmien–Schlichting-modes. The initial spectra of the excited perturbations at the position of the vibrator was obtained by two different techniques. The first used an additional source which was mounted upstream and provided the amplification curves for the instability modes in the vicinity of the vibrator, the second was based on linear stability calculations. The receptivity coefficients were defined as the ratio of the initial wavenumber spectrum of the excited TS-waves and the corresponding resonant spectrum of the surface vibrations. They were determined for each fixed frequency as a function of the spanwise wavenumber.The boundary value problem for the disturbance produced by the vibrating membrane was solved theoretically for the same conditions as in the experiments in the framework of the classical hydrodynamic stability theory. The Navier–Stokes equations were linearized around a incompressible basic flow described by a solution of the Falkner–Skan equation. Comparisons of the theoretical and experimental results on the 3D receptivity show good quantitative agreement. It is concluded that the favorable pressure gradient increases the boundary-layer receptivity to surface vibrations.     

Boundary-layer receptivity to external disturbances using multiple scales

Non-homogeneous multiple scales are introduced to solve the resonant problem of non-parallel boundary-layer receptivity originating from the quadratic mixing of environmental disturbances. The resulting algorithm is computationally inexpensive and can be efficiently included in industrial codes for transition prediction. The mutual interactions between acoustic wave, vorticity wave, wall vibration and wall roughness are discussed in detail and the receptivity coefficient, which relates the amplitude of the excited wave to the amplitude of the exciting sources, is computed. The largest effect is found for the interaction between acoustic waves and wall roughness perturbations. Other coupling mechanisms are less effective. By comparing parallel and non-parallel results, it is found that flow non-parallelism can play a non-negligible role even in Blasius’ boundary layer, although the largest effects are evident for the three-dimensional boundary layer over an infinite swept wing. For the particular case of wall roughness—wall vibration mixing, the velocity disturbance is shown to be exactly equal to the velocity perturbation induced by wall roughness alone on a wall vibrating in the normal direction.     

Local receptivity in non-parallel boundary layer

The research on boundary-layer receptivity is the key issue for the laminarturbulent transition prediction in fluid mechanics. Many of the previous studies for local receptivity are on the basis of the parallel flow assumption which cannot accurately reflect the real physics. To overcome this disadvantage, local receptivity in the non-parallel boundary layer is studied in this paper by the direct numerical simulation (DNS). The difference between the non-parallel and parallel boundary layers on local receptivity is investigated. In addition, the effects of the disturbance frequency, the roughness location, and the multiple roughness elements on receptivity are also determined. Besides, the relations of receptivity with the amplitude of free-stream turbulence (FST), with the roughness height, and with the roughness length are ascertained as well. The Tollmien- Schlichting (T-S) wave packets are excited in the non-parallel boundary layer under the interaction of the FST and the localized wall roughness. A group of T-S waves are separated by the fast Fourier transform. The obtained results are in accordance with Dietz’s measurements, Wu’s theoretical calculations, and the linear stability theory (LST).     

Boundary-layer receptivity under interaction of free-stream turbulence and localized wall roughness

The boundary-layer receptivity under the interaction of free-stream turbu- lence (FST) and localized wall roughness is studied by the direct numerical simulation (DNS) and the fast Fourier transform. The results show that the Tollmien-Schlichting (T-S) wave packets superposed by a group of stability, neutral, and instability T-S waves are generated in the boundary layer. The propagation speeds of the T-S wave packets are calculated. The relation among the boundary-layer receptivity response, the amplitude of the FST, the roughness height, and the roughness width is determined. The results agree well with Dietz’s experiments. The effect of the roughness geometries on the receptivity is also studied.     

Response of a hypersonic blunt cone boundary layer to slow acoustic waves with assessment of various routes of receptivity

The hypersonic boundary-layer receptivity to slow acoustic waves is investigated for the Mach 6 flow over a 5-degree half-angle blunt cone with the nose radius of 5.08 mm. The plane acoustic wave interacts with the bow shock, and generates all types of disturbances behind the shock, which may take various routes to generate the boundary-layer unstable mode. In this paper, two routes of receptivity are investigated in detail. One is through the disturbance in the entropy layer. The other is through the slow acoustic wave transmitted downstream the bow shock, which can excite the boundary-layer mode due to the synchronization mechanism. The results show that, for a low frequency slow acoustic wave, the latter route plays a leading role. The entropy-layer instability wave is able to excite the first mode near the neutral point, but its receptivity efficiency is much lower.     

Receptivity of a flat plate boundary layer to a free stream axial vortex

A single free stream axial vortex of controlled strength and position was used to investigate a vortical receptivity of Blasius boundary layer. Excited boundary-layer disturbances were dominated by streamwise velocity perturbations, that grew downstream essentially linearly with the streamwise coordinate. It was shown that the disturbance characteristics are in agreement with data of previous experiments performed under natural and control conditions concerning the ‘by-pass’ transition initiated at high free stream disturbance levels. It was proved that the role of the leading edge in the receptivity process and disturbance growth under consideration is not dominant.     

局部散射理论在高超声速边界层转捩预测中应用的检验

eN方法是物理意义明确的转捩预测方法之一,但它无法考虑边界层中的局部突变(如粗糙元、缝隙、台阶等)对转捩的影响.而后者在飞行器表面经常出现.近期发展的局部散射理论框架提供了该问题的有效解决途径.该理论框架从转捩的物理机理出发,定量刻画局部感受性和线性模态的局部散射两个机制,并用参数化的感受性系数和透射系数修正转捩判据....     

Occurrence of Tolman-Schlichting waves in the boundary layer under the effect of external perturbations

Under small external perturbations, the initial stage of the laminar into turbulent flow transition process in boundary layers is the development of natural oscillations, Tolman-Schlichting waves, which are described by the linear theory of hydrodynamic stability. Subsequent nonlinear processes start to appear in a sufficiently narrow band of relative values of the perturbation amplitudes (1–2% of the external flow velocity) and progress quite stormily. Hence, the initial linear stage of relatively slow development of perturbations is governing, in a known sense, in the complete transition process. In particular, the location of the transition point depends, to a large extent, on the spectrum composition and intensity of the perturbations in the boundary layer, which start to develop according to linear theory laws, resulting in the long run in destruction of the laminar flow mode. In its turn, the initial intensity and spectrum composition of the Tolman-Schlichting waves evidently depend on the corresponding characteristics of the different external perturbations generating these waves. The significant discrepancy in the data of different authors on the transition Reynolds number in the boundary layer on a flat plate [1–4] is probably explained by the difference in the composition of the small perturbing factors (which have not, unfortunately, been fully checked out by far). Moreover, it is impossible to expect that all kinds of external perturbations will be transformed identically into the natural boundary-layer oscillations. The relative role of external perturbations of different nature is apparently not identical in the Tolman-Schlichting wave generation process. However, how the boundary layer reacts to small external perturbations, under what conditions and in what way do external perturbations excite Tolman-Schlichting waves in the boundary layer have practically not been investigated. The importance of these questions in the solution of the problem of the passage to turbulence and in practical applications has been emphasized repeatedly recently [5, 6], Only the first steps towards their solution have been taken at this time [4, 7–10], Out of all the small perturbing factors under the real conditions of the majority of experiments to investigate the flow stability and transition in the case of smooth polished walls, three are apparently most essential, viz.: the turbulence of the external flow, acoustic perturbations, and model vibrations. In principle, all possible mechanisms for converting the energy of these perturbations into Tolman-Schlichting waves can be subdivided into two classes (excluding the nonlinear interactions which are not examined here): 1) distributed wave generation in the boundary layer; and 2) localized wave generation at the leading edge of the streamlined model. Among the first class is both the possibility of the direct transformation of the external flow perturbations into Tolman-Schlichting waves through the boundary-layer boundary, and wave excitation because of the active vibrations of the model wall. Among the second class are all possible mechanisms for the conversion of acoustic or vortical perturbations, as well as the vibrations of the streamlined surface, into Tolman-Schlichting waves, which occurs in the area of the model leading edge.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR. Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 5, pp. 85–94, September–October, 1978.     

Receptivity of Hypersonic Boundary Layer to Wall Disturbances

Theoretical analysis of hypersonic boundary-layer receptivity to wall disturbances is conducted using a combination of asymptotic and numerical methods. Excitation of the second mode by distributed and local forcing on a flat-plate surface is studied under adiabatic and cooled wall conditions. Analysis addresses receptivity to wall vibrations, periodic suction/blowing, and temperature disturbances. A strong excitation occurs in local regions where forcing is in resonance with normal waves. It is shown that the receptivity function tends to infinity as the resonance point tends to the branch point of the discrete spectrum that is typical for boundary layers on cool surfaces. Asymptotic analysis resolves this singularity and provides the receptivity coefficient in the branch-point vicinity. Numerical results indicate extremely high receptivity to vibrations and suction/blowing in the vicinity of the branch point located near the lower neutral branch of the Mack second mode. Received 5 September 2000 and accepted 7 September 2001     

NUMERICAL STUDY OF LOCAL BOUNDARY LAYER RECEPTIVITY TO FREESTREAM VORTICAL DISTURBANCES

IntroductionTheproblemofhowthedisturbancesinthefreestream ,suchassoundwaveandvorticesetc .,excitethedisturbancewavesintheboundarylayeriscalledreceptivityproblem[1,2 ].Throughthiscoursetheinitialconditionsofdisturbance,suchasitsamplitude,frequency ,andphasearedetermined .ThedispersionrelationsoffreestreamdisturbancesaredifferentfromthoseofT_Swaves.Asaresult,suchdisturbancesaloneinthefreestreamdonotexciteT_Swavesinboundarylayer.But,whentheperiodicdisturbancesinboundarylayerforcedbyfreestreamdi…     

Prehistory of Instability in a Hypersonic Boundary Layer

The initial phase of hypersonic boundary-layer transition comprising excitation of boundary-layer modes and their downstream evolution from receptivity regions to the unstable region (instability prehistory problem) is considered. The disturbance spectrum reveals the following features: (1) the first and second modes are synchronized with acoustic waves near the leading edge; (2) further downstream, the first mode is synchronized with entropy and vorticity waves; (3) near the lower neutral branch of the Mack second mode, the first mode is synchronized with the second mode. Disturbance behavior in Regions (2) and (3) is studied using the multiple-mode method accounting for interaction between modes due to mean-flow nonparallel effects. Analysis of the disturbance behavior in Region 3) provides the intermodal exchange rule coupling input and output amplitudes of the first and second modes. It is shown that Region (3) includes branch points at which disturbance group velocity and amplitude are singular. These singularities can cause difficulties in stability analyses. In Region (2), vorticity/entropy waves are partially swallowed by the boundary layer. They may effectively generate the Mack second mode near its lower neutral branch. Received 17 July 2000 and accepted 23 March 2001     

Traveling disturbance appearing in boundary layer transition in a Yawed cylinder

Boundary layers that develop over a body in fluid flow are in most cases three-dimensional owing to the spin, yaw, or surface curvature of the body. Therefore, the study of three-dimensional (3D) boundary-layer transition is essential to work in practical aerodynamics. The present investigation is concerned with the problem of 3D boundary layers over a yawed body. A yawed cylinder model that represents the leading edge portion of a swept wing and the mechanism of crossflow instability are investigated in detail using hot-wire velocimetry and a flow visualization technique. As a result, traveling disturbances having frequencies f₁ and f₂, which differ by about one order of magnitude, are detected in the transition region. The phase velocities and directions of travel of those disturbances are measured. Results for the low-frequency disturbance f₁ show qualitative coincidence with results numerically predicted for a crossflow unsteady disturbance. Nameley, F₁ travels nearly spanwise to the yawed cylinder and very close to the cylinder wall. The results for the high-frequency disturbance f₂ good agreement with the existing experimental results. The ₂ disturbance is found to be the high-frequency inflectional secondary instability that appears in 3D boundary layer transition in general. A two-stage transition process, where stationary crossflow vortices appear as the primary instability and a traveling inflectional disturbance is generated as a secondary instability, was observed. Secondary instability seems to play a major role in turbulent transition.     

Roughness-induced generation of crossflow vortices in three-dimensional boundary layers

The receptivity theory of Goldstein and Ruban is extended within the nonasymptotic (quasi-parallel) framework of Zavol'skii et al. to predict the roughness-induced generation of stationary and nonstationary instability waves in three-dimensional, incompressible boundary layers. The influence of acoustic-wave orientation, as well as that of different types of roughness geometries, including isolated roughness elements, periodic arrays, and two-dimensional lattices of compact roughness shapes, as well as random, but spatially homogeneous roughness distributions, is examined. The parametric study for the Falkner-Skan-Cooke family of boundary layers supports our earlier conjecture that the initial amplitudes of roughness-induced stationary vortices are likely to be significantly larger than the amplitudes of similarly induced nonstationary vortices in the presence of acoustic disturbances in the free stream. Maximum unsteady receptivity occurs when the acoustic velocity fluctuation is aligned with the wave-number vector of the unsteady vortex mode. On the other hand, roughness arrays that are oriented somewhere close to the group velocity direction are likely to produce higher instability amplitudes. Limitations of the nonasymptotic theory are discussed, and future work is suggested.Financial support for this work was provided by the Theoretical Flow Physics Branch at the NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681, under Contract No. NAS1-19299.     

Swept-Wing Boundary Layer Receptivity to a Steady Free-Stream Vortex Disturbance

A single trailing vortex developed behind a micro-wing immersed in a free stream was used to study the vortex receptivity of a swept-wing boundary layer. As a result of the interaction, longitudinal-velocity disturbances develop in the boundary layer. On the swept wing, disturbance transformation occurs near the leading edge and is accompanied by the formation of a wave packet consisting of waves typical of cross-flow instability. Disturbances with other characteristics are also detected. These disturbances may be attributable to distributed boundary-layer receptivity to the free-stream vortex disturbance considered.     

Numerical modeling of the receptivity of a supersonic boundary layer to entropy disturbances

Numerical modeling of the receptivity of a two-dimensional flat-plate boundary layer to entropy disturbances is carried out at the freestream Mach number M_∞ = 6. Low-intensity perturbations considered are in the form of temperature spots of various shapes and with different initial positions downstream of the shock. They are shown to be able to generate unstable disturbances in the boundary layer. This receptivity mechanism is relatively weak as compared with the receptivity to acoustic waves. When the entropy perturbations are introduced upstream of the bow shock, they first pass across the shock. Downstream of the shock this interaction generates acoustic waves which, in turn, penetrate into the boundary layer thus exciting unstable disturbances of a considerably greater amplitude than the temperature spots. Thus, the bow shock can change the receptivity mechanism.     

Mechanism of three-dimensional boundary-layer receptivity

Boundary-layer receptivity is always a hot issue in laminar-turbulent transition. Most actual laminar-turbulent transitions belong to three-dimensional flows. An infinite back-swept flat-plate boundary layer is a typical three-dimensional flow. Study of its receptivity is important both in theory and applications. In this paper, a freestream turbulence model is established. A modified fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme is used for time marching, and compact finite difference schemes are used for space discretization. On these bases, whether unsteady cross-flow vortices can be excited in the three-dimensional boundary layer(the infinite back-swept flat-plate boundary layer) by free-stream turbulence is studied numerically. If so, effects of the level and the direction of free-stream turbulence on the three-dimensional boundary-layer receptivity are further studied. Differences of the three-dimensional boundary-layer receptivity are then discussed by considering the non-parallel effect, influence of the leading-edge stagnation point of the flat plate, and variation of the back-swept angle separately. Intensive studies on the three-dimensional boundary-layer receptivity will benefit the development of the hydrodynamic stability theory, and provide a theoretical basis for prediction and control of laminar-turbulent transition.     

Acoustic receptivity of Mach 4.5 boundary layer with leading-edge bluntness

Boundary layer receptivity to two-dimensional slow and fast acoustic waves is investigated by solving Navier–Stokes equations for Mach 4.5 flow over a flat plate with a finite-thickness leading edge. Higher order spatial and temporal schemes are employed to obtain the solution whereby the flat-plate leading edge region is resolved by providing a sufficiently refined grid. The results show that the instability waves are generated in the leading edge region and that the boundary-layer is much more receptive to slow acoustic waves (by almost a factor of 20) as compared to the fast waves. Hence, this leading-edge receptivity mechanism is expected to be more relevant in the transition process for high Mach number flows where second mode instability is dominant. Computations are performed to investigate the effect of leading-edge thickness and it is found that bluntness tends to stabilize the boundary layer. Furthermore, the relative significance of fast acoustic waves is enhanced in the presence of bluntness. The effect of acoustic wave incidence angle is also studied and it is found that the receptivity of the boundary layer on the ‘windward’ side (with respect to the acoustic forcing) decreases by more than a factor of four when the incidence angle is increased from 0° to 45°. However, the receptivity coefficient for the ‘leeward’ side is found to vary relatively weakly with the incidence angle.      

Scattering of Tollmien-Schlichting waves by localized roughness in transonic boundary layers

The laminar-turbulent transition in boundary-layer flows is often affected by wall imperfections, because the latter may interact with either the freestream perturbations or the oncoming boundary-layer instability modes, leading to a modification of the accumulation of the normal modes. The present paper particularly focuses on the latter mechanism in a transonic boundary layer, namely, the effect of a two-dimensional(2 D) roughness element on the oncoming Tollmien-Schlichting(T-S) modes when they propagate through the region of the rapid mean-flow distortion induced by the roughness. The wave scattering is analyzed by adapting the local scattering theory developed for subsonic boundary layers(WU, X. S. and DONG, M. A local scattering theory for the effects of isolated roughness on boundary-layer instability and transition: transmission coefficient as an eigenvalue. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 794, 68–108(2006)) to the transonic regime, and a transmission coefficient is introduced to characterize the effect of the roughness. In the sub-transonic regime, in which the Mach number is close to, but less than, 1, the scattering system reduces to an eigenvalue problem with the transmission coefficient being the eigenvalue; while in the super-transonic regime, in which the Mach number is slightly greater than 1, the scattering system becomes a high-dimensional group of linear equations with the transmission coefficient being solved afterward. In the largeReynolds-number asymptotic theory, the K′arm′an-Guderley parameter is introduced to quantify the effect of the Mach number. A systematical parametric study is carried out,and the dependence of the transmission coefficient on the roughness shape, the frequency of the oncoming mode, and the K′arm′an-Guderley parameter is provided.     

波纹壁对高超声速平板边界层稳定性的影响

高超声速边界层转捩会使飞行器表面热流和摩阻增加3～5倍,极大影响高超声速飞行器的性能.波纹壁作为一种可能的推迟边界层转捩的被动控制方法,具有较强的工程应用前景.文章研究了不同高度和安装位置的波纹壁对来流马赫数6.5的平板边界层稳定性的影响.采用直接数值模拟(DNS)得到层流场,并在上游分别引入不同频率的吹吸扰动以研究波纹壁对扰动演化的作用.对于不同位置的波纹壁,探究了其与同步点相对位置对其作用效果的影响,与相同工况下光滑平板的扰动演化结果进行了对比,发现当快慢模态同步点位于波纹壁上游时,波纹壁会对该频率的第二模态扰动起到抑制作用.当同步点位于波纹壁之中或者下游时,波纹壁对扰动的作用可能因为存在两种不同的机制而使得结果较为复杂.对于不同高度波纹壁,发现高度较低的波纹壁,其作用效果强弱与波纹壁高度成正相关,而更高的波纹壁则会减弱其作用效果.与DNS结果相比,线性稳定性理论可以定性预测波纹壁对高频吹吸扰动的作用,但在波纹壁附近的强非平行性区域误差较大.     

Excitation of unsteady Görtler vortices by localized surface nonuniformities

A combined theoretical and numerical analysis of an experiment devoted to the excitation of Görtler vortices by localized stationary or vibrating surface nonuniformities in a boundary layer over a concave surface is performed. A numerical model of generation of small-amplitude disturbances and their downstream propagation based on parabolic equations is developed. In the framework of this model, the optimal and the modal parts of excited disturbance are defined as solutions of initial-value problems with initial values being, respectively, the optimal disturbance and the leading local mode at the location of the source. It is shown that a representation of excited disturbance as a sum of the optimal part and a remainder makes it possible to describe its generation and downstream propagation, as well as to predict satisfactorily the corresponding receptivity coefficient. In contrast, the representation based on the modal part provides only coarse information about excitation and propagation of disturbance in the range of parameters under investigation. However, it is found that the receptivity coefficients estimated using the modal parts can be reinterpreted to preserve their practical significance. A corresponding procedure was developed. The theoretical and experimental receptivity coefficients are estimated and compared. It is found that the receptivity magnitudes grow significantly with the disturbance frequency. Variation of the span-wise scale of the nonuniformities affects weakly the receptivity characteristics at zero frequency. However, at high frequencies, the efficiency of excitation of Görtler vortices depends substantially on the span-wise scale.