Nonlinear evolution of a first mode oblique wave in a compressible boundary layer: I. Heated/cooled walls

The nonlinear stability of an oblique mode propagating in atwo-dimensional compressible boundary layer is considered underthe long wavelength approximation. The growth rate of the waveis assumed to be small so that the ideas of unsteady nonlinearcritical layers can be applied. It is shown that the spatial/temporalevolution of the mode is governed by a pair of coupled unsteadynonlinear equations for the disturbance vorticity and density.Expressions for the linear growth rate show clearly the effectsof wall heating and cooling, and in particular how heating destabilizesthe boundary layer for these long wavelength inviscid modesat O(1) Mach numbers. A generalized expression for the lineargrowth rate is obtained and is shown to compare very well fora range of frequencies and wave angles at moderate Mach numberswith full numerical solutions of the linear stability problem.The numerical solution of the nonlinear unsteady critical layerproblem using a novel method based on Fourier decompositionand Chebyshev collocation is discussed and some results arepresented.