Secondary instability modes generated by a Tollmien-Schlichting wave scattering from a bump

The plane finite-amplitude Tollmien-Schlichting wave interaction with a three-dimensional bump on a wall is considered for plane channel flow. The scattering of this wave leads to the production of unsteady three-dimensional disturbances which transform into growing secondary instability modes. The generation of such modes is studied assuming the three-dimensional disturbances to be small in comparison with the primary plane instability wave. The solution predicts that secondary disturbance amplification takes place only within a narrow wedge downstream of the bump. The qualitative comparison of results with experiments on turbulent wedge origination at an isolated roughness in a boundary layer is presented.     

Local and global instabilities of flow in a flexible-walled channel

We consider laminar high-Reynolds-number flow through a long finite-length planar channel, where a segment of one wall is replaced by a massless membrane held under longitudinal tension. The flow is driven by a fixed pressure difference across the channel and is described using an integral form of the unsteady boundary-layer equations. The basic flow state, for which the channel has uniform width, exhibits static and oscillatory global instabilities, having distinct modal forms. In contrast, the corresponding local problem (neglecting boundary conditions associated with the rigid parts of the system) is found to be convectively, but not absolutely, unstable to small-amplitude disturbances in the absence of wall damping. We show how amplification of the primary global oscillatory instability can arise entirely from wave reflections with the rigid parts of the system, involving interacting travelling-wave flutter and static-divergence modes that are convectively stable; alteration of the mean flow by oscillations makes the onset of this primary instability subcritical. We also show how distinct mechanisms of energy transfer differentiate the primary global mode from other modes of oscillatory instability.     

On Disturbance Propagation in Internal-Flow Boundary Layers

The unsteady interaction of plane-channel wall boundary layers with a supersonic inviscid flow is investigated. The flow regimes in which disturbances introduced by the boundary layer developing on one wall influence the boundary layer on the other wall are considered. The regime of relatively large pressure disturbance amplitudes generated near the nozzle outlet or by deforming the channel walls is studied. In these conditions, the interaction process is described by a system of Burgers equations with retarded arguments. Numerical solutions of this system are obtained for symmetric and antisymmetric perturbations of the channel walls.     

Viscous Effects Can Destabilize Linear and Nonlinear Water Waves

Long waves on a running stream in shallow water are shown theoretically to be susceptible, in some circumstances, to a viscous instability, which can lead to rapid linear and nonlinear growth. The theory is based on high Reynolds numbers and involves viscous-inviscid interplay, leading in effect to a viscosity-modified version of the classical nonlinear K dV equation. This is with a pre-existing mean flow present. The modification is due to a Stokes wall layer and it can cause severe linear and nonlinear instability. A model profile for the original mean flow is studied first, followed by a smooth realistic profile, the latter provoking a nonlinear critical layer in addition. The theory is linked with interactive-boundary-layer analysis and linear and nonlinear Tollmien-Schlichting waves and there is some analogy with the recent findings (in work by the authors) of nonlinear break-ups occurring in any unsteady interactive boundary layer, including the external boundary layer and internal channel or pipe flows.     

Boundary-layer transition on a cylinder with and without separation bubbles

Boundary layer transition with and without transitional separation bubbles was investigated on a cylinder in cross flow. Measurements of the pressure distribution and hot-wire measurements within the boundary layer were carried out at two free-stream velocities and with different flow disturbances. The separation bubble reacts very sensitively to changes in inlet turbulence. Tollmien-Schlichting waves were observed in the separated shear layer just before transition, and their frequencies were in good agreement with stability theory. However, correlations concerning bubble length which were fitted using airfoil data are apparently not suitable for describing separation bubbles on cylinders. Finally, measurements in periodically disturbed flow show how the bubble reacts to this type of disturbance.     

Development of three-dimensional disturbances in a boundary layer

In the region of transition from a two-dimensional laminar boundary layer to a turbulent one, three-dimensional flow occurs [1–3]. It has been proposed that this flow is formed as the result of nonlinear interaction of two-dimensional and three-dimensional disturbances predicted by linear hydrodynamic stability theory. Using many simplifications, [4, 5] performed a calculation of this interaction for a free boundary layer and a boundary layer on a wall with a very coarse approximation of the velocity profile. The results showed some argreement with experiment. On the other hand, it is known that disturbances of the Tollmin—Schlichting wave type can be observed at sufficiently high amplitude. This present study will use the method of successive linearization to calculate the primary two- and three-dimensional disturbances, and also the average secondary flow occurring because of nonlinear interaction of the primary disturbances. The method of calculation used is close to that of [4, 5], the disturbance parameters being calculated on the basis of a Blazius velocity profile. A detailed comparison of results with experimental data [1] is made. It developed that at large disturbance amplitude the amplitude growth rate differs from that of linear theory, while the spatial distribution of disturbances agree s well with the distribution given by the natural functions and their nonlinear interaction. In calculating the secondary flow an experimental correction was made to the amplitude growth rate.     

Nonlinear interaction of a large vortex with a boundary layer

The nonlinear problem of boundary layer instability under the influence of a plane vortex is investigated for high Reynolds numbers. The vortex occupies the entire thickness of the boundary layer and has a longitudinal dimension of the order of the Tollmien-Schlichting wavelength. The initial vortex is rapidly swept away by the flow, inducing a Stokes layer near the surface of the plate. Expanding, this layer reaches the dimensions of the viscous sublayer of free interaction theory, where wave packet generation takes place. In the case in question a feature of the nonlinear stage of development of the disturbances is the formation of a concentrated vortex, which arises in the Stokes layer and grows rapidly, whereas the wave packet propagated ahead of it remains linear. From the calculations there emerges a tendency for the new vortex to be formed above the wail, whereas the maximum vorticity of the vortex generated in the Stokes layer corresponds to the wall itself.Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No.1, pp. 70–77, January–February, 1993.The authors are grateful to V. V. Kozlov for his interest in their work.     

The origin and subsequent development in space of Tollmien-Schlichting waves in a boundary layer

Two kinds of small-parameter expansions are used to derive a series of ordinary differential equations governing spatially growing or decaying disturbances of the travelling-wave type in non-parallel laminar boundary layers. Eigensolutions of the lowest-order equation are shown to tend to resemble eigensolutions of the unsteady boundary-layer equation as the Reynolds number Re decreases, and to the Tollmien-Schlichting wave solutions of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation as Re increases. Examination of the next-order approximation reveals that the unsteady boundary-layer equation has eigensolutions only if Re exceeds a critical value depending on the frequency of disturbances, while it remains a partial differential equation for lower Reynolds numbers. Thus the Tollmien-Schlichting wave may be considered to originate at the above critical value of Re. The subsequent development of the wave with fixed frequency can be followed by integrating the spatial growth rate of the eigensolutions with respect to the downstream distance. The amplitude is at first damped but grows even higher than its original value farther downstream, provided the frequency is less than a certain value.     

Görtler vortices promoted by wall roughness

Numerical experiments are conducted to investigate spatially developing Görtler vortices and the way in which wall roughness promotes their formation and growth. Several different types of walls are examined and their relative merits as vortex promoters assessed. The only disturbances of the flow are due to the rough wall; hence, at each downstream station the local field feels (1) the upstream flow distribution (produced by the upstream wall conditions) and (2) the local forcing at the wall. Rapid vortex formation and growth, like in the case of ribleted walls, can be qualitatively explained by the positive combination of these two effects; when the two influences on the local flow field compete, e.g. for randomly distributed wall roughness, the equations with the boundary conditions filter the disturbances over some streamwise length, function of the roughness amplitude, to create coherent patches of vorticity out of the random noise. These patches can then be amplified by the instability mechanism. If a thin rough strip is aligned along the span of an otherwise smooth wall to trip the boundary layer, the filtering region is shorter and growth of the vortices starts earlier. Also for the case of an isolated three-dimensional hump a rapid disturbance amplification is produced, but in this case the vortices remain confined and a very slow spanwise spreading of the perturbation occurs. In all naturally developing cases, where no specific wavelengths are explicity favored, the average spanwise wavelengths computed are very close to those of largest growth from the linear stability theory.     

An experimental study of receptivity of acoustic waves in laminar boundary layers

The receptivity of a laminar boundary layer developing on a flat plate was studied with two- and three-dimensional roughness elements. The layer was subjected to acoustic waves from speakers orientated perpendicular to the surface of the plate. Visualization of the transition patterns were obtained by heating temperature sensitive liquid crystals on the plate and observing the cooling patterns associated with the different flow regimes. Hot-wire data showed that the most amplified Tollmien-Schlichting waves dominated the downstream growth when the roughnesses were placed within the linearly unstable regime. The receptivity depended upon the size and aspect ratio of the three-dimensional roughness as predicted by Choudhari and Kerschen 1990. This research was partially funded by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-89-J-1400. Their support is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank one of the reviewers for his helpful comments.     

The hydrodynamic stability of channel flow with compliant boundaries

An asymptotic theory is developed for the hydrodynamic stability of an incompressible fluid flowing in a channel in which one wall is rigid and the other is compliant. We exploit the multideck structure of the flow to investigate theoretically the development of disturbances to the flow in the limit of large Reynolds numbers. A simple spring-plate model is used to describe the motion of the compliant wall, and this study considers the effect of the various wall parameters, such as tension, inertia, and damping, on the stability properties. An amplitude equation for a modulated wavetrain is derived and the properties of this equation are studied for a number of cases including linear and nonlinear theory. It is shown that in general the effect of viscoelastic damping is destabilizing. In particular, for large damping, the analysis points to a fast travelling wave, short-scale instability, which may be related to a flutter instability observed in some experiments. This work also demonstrates that the conclusions obtained by previous investigators in which the effect of tension, inertia, and other parameters is neglected, may be misleading. Finally it is shown that a set of compliant-wall parameters exists for which the Haberman type of critical layer analysis leads to stable equilibrium amplitudes, in contrast to many other stability problems where such equilibrium amplitudes are unstable.P.S. is grateful to the University of Zimbabwe for financial support. J.S.B.G. is grateful to the E.P.S.R.C. for the computing resources acquired under Grants GR/H58568-C88 and GR/H 83683 used in this research.     

柔性壁面湍流边界层相干结构控制的实验研究

本文利用热膜测速技术对刚性壁面和柔性壁面湍流边界层的流向速度分量进行了实验测量,首先研究了柔性壁面对平均速度分布和湍流度分布的影响,结果表明:柔性壁面的边界层速度分布在对数律层向上有所平移,缓冲层加厚,具有一般的壁面减阻特征;而柔性壁的湍流度比刚性壁的湍流度要低,分布也更为平坦。然后综合运用自相关法和条件采样技术研究了湍流近壁区的相干结构,结果表明:刚性壁自相关曲线的第二峰值出现的时间比柔性壁的短,柔性壁的猝发频率比刚性壁的低许多。实验结果表明柔性壁面具有一定的减阻作用。     

Transition control of Mach 6.5 hypersonic flat plate boundary layer

An artificial disturbance is introduced into the boundary layer over a flat plate to investigate the effect on the transition process in the Mach 6.5 wind tunnel at Peking University. A linear stability theory(LST) is utilized to predict the evolution of the eigenmodes, and the frequency of the artificial disturbance is chosen according to the LST results. The artificial disturbance is generated by glowing discharge on the surface of the plate close to the leading edge. The Rayleigh-scattering visualization and particle image velocimetry(PIV) measurements are performed. By comparing the experimental results with artificial disturbances with those under the natural condition(without artificial disturbances), the present paper shows that the second-mode instability waves are significantly stimulated by the artificial disturbances, and the boundary layer transition is effectively triggered.     

Sensitivity Analysis Using Adjoint Parabolized Stability Equations for Compressible Flows

An input/output framework is used to analyze the sensitivity of two- and three-dimensional disturbances in a compressible boundary layer for changes in wall and momentum forcing. The sensitivity is defined as the gradient of the kinetic disturbance energy at a given downstream position with respect to the forcing. The gradients are derived using the parabolized stability equations (PSE) and their adjoint (APSE). The adjoint equations are derived in a consistent way for a quasi-two-dimensional compressible flow in an orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system. The input/output framework provides a basis for optimal control studies. Analysis of two-dimensional boundary layers for Mach numbers between 0 and 1.2 show that wall and momentum forcing close to branch I of the neutral stability curve give the maximum magnitude of the gradient. Forcing at the wall gives the largest magnitude using the wall normal velocity component. In case of incompressible flow, the two-dimensional disturbances are the most sensitive ones to wall inhomogeneity. For compressible flow, the three-dimensional disturbances are the most sensitive ones. Further, it is shown that momentum forcing is most effectively done in the vicinity of the critical layer. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

各向异性柔性壁上二维T-S波演化的数值研究

受自然界鸟类羽毛的柔性特征启发,利用数值模拟的手段进行了各向异性柔性壁面对亚音速边界层中T-S(Tollmien-Schlichting)波空间演化的影响研究.首先,刚性壁面上的数值结果与线性理论预测的结果吻合得很好,验证了所采用的高阶精度格心型有限差分方法的可靠性.在此基础上,将部分刚性壁面替换为柔性壁面,结果表明柔...     

An experimental investigation of unsteady turbulent-wake/boundary-layer interaction

An experimental investigation of unsteady-wake/boundary-layer interaction, similar to that occurring in turbomachinery, has been conducted in a specially modified wind tunnel. Unsteadiness in a turbomachine is periodic in nature, due to the relative motion of rotor and stator blades, resulting in travelling-wave disturbances that affect the blade boundary layers. In the experimental rig, travelling-wave disturbances were generated by a moving airfoil apparatus installed upstream of a flat plate to provide a two-dimensional model of a turbomachine stage. The boundary layer on the flat plate was tripped near the leading edge to generate a turbulent flow prior to interaction with the wakes, and measurements of velocity throughout the boundary layer were taken with a hot-wire probe. The Reynolds number, based on distance along the plate, ranged from 0.144×10⁵ to 1.44×10⁵, and all data were reduced through a process of ensemble averaging. Due to the nonlinear interactions with the boundary layer, the travelling discrete frequency wakes were found to decrease the shape factor of the velocity profile and to increase the level of turbulent fluctuations. Unlike the phase advance found with stationary-wave external disturbances, velocity profiles subject to the travelling wake fluctuations exhibited increasingly negative phase shifts from the free-stream towards the wall.     

Experimental studies of interfacial instabilities in multilayer pressure-driven flow of polymeric melts

The interfacial deformation and stability of two-(A-B) as well as three-layer symmetric (A-B-A) and asymmetric (A-B-C) pressure-driven flow of viscoelastic fluids has been investigated. Flow visualization in conjunction with digital image processing has been used to observe and measure the rate of encapsulation and interfacial stability/instability of the flow. Specifically, the encapsulation behavior as well as stability/instability of the interface and the corresponding growth or decay rate of disturbances as a function of various important parameters, namely, number of layers and their arrangement, layer depth ratio, viscosity and elasticity ratio as well as disturbance frequency, have been investigated. Based on these experiments, we have shown that the encapsulation phenomena occurs irrespective of the stability/instability of the interface and in cases when both encapsulation and instability occur simultaneously their coupling leads to highly complex and three-dimensional interfacial wave patterns. Moreover, it has been shown that the simple notion that less viscous fluids encapsulate more viscous fluids is incorrect and depending on the wetting properties of the fluid as well as their first and second normal stresses the reverse could occur. Additionally, in two- and three-layer flows it has been shown that by placing a thin, less viscous layer adjacent to the wall longwave disturbances can be stabilized while short and intermediate wavelength disturbances are stabilized when the more elastic fluid is the majority component. Furthermore, in three-layer flows it has been demonstrated that in the linear instability regime no dynamic interaction between the two interfaces is possible for short and intermediate wavenumber disturbances. However, in the nonlinear stability regime dynamic interactions between interfaces have been observed in this range of disturbance wavenumbers leading to highly chaotic flows. Finally, in the parameter space of this study no subcritical bifurcations were observed while supercritical bifurcations resulting in waves with a pointed front and a gradual tail were observed.     

Investigation of boundary layer stability in a gradient flow with a high degree of free-stream turbulence

The results of an experimental investigation of boundary layer stability in a gradient flow with a high degree of free-stream turbulence are presented. The question of the possible artificial generation, the further development and the effect on laminar-turbulent transition of instability waves (Tollmien-Schlichting waves) in the boundary layer on a wing profile is considered for a level of free-stream turbulence =1.75% of the free-stream velocity; the sensitivity of the flow to the disturbances and their control by means of boundary layer suction are investigated.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 52–58, March–April, 1990.     

An experimental research on the instability of natural convection boundary layer around a vertical heated flat plate

Experimental results on the instability of the isothermal naturalconvection boundary layer around a vertical heated flat plate are presented. It is demonstrated that the characteristics of the instability wave in the outer layer is consistent with the calculation of Brewster & Gebhart. After an initial growth of its low frequency components at the downstream side of the turning point of the neutral curve (Gr≈120) its comparatively higher frequency components develop and become turbulent subsequently with a buoyancy subrange in its power spectra. Simultaneously, in the measurement at the inner layer near the wall a viscous instability signal the same as the Tollmien-Schlichting waves in ordinary boundary layer and its subharmonics in a much higher frequency domain is discovered and an inertial subrange can be observed in the spectra atGr≈378.6. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19572004)     

The onset of Görtler vortices in laminar boundary layer flow over a slightly concave wall

The onset of convective instability in the laminar boundary layer over the slightly curved wall is analyzed theoretically and compared with the existing experimental data. A new set of stability equations are derived by the propagation theory considering the relative instability under the linear stability theory. In this analysis the disturbances are assumed to have the form of longitudinal vortices and also to grow themselves in streamwise direction. The critical position to mark the onset of Görtler instability is obtained as a function of the Görtler number, where disturbances at the critical state are mainly confined to the hydrodynamic boundary layer. Comparing the theoretical predictions with available experimental and other theoretical results, the present predictions follow experimental trends fairly well with slightly higher critical Görtler numbers than those from the local stability theory. The propagation theory commanding the local eigenvalue analysis is successful to obtain stability conditions reasonably in Görtler vortex problems, relaxing the limitations by the conventional analyses.