Receptivity of the Flat-Plate Boundary Layer to Free-Stream Turbulence

The linear problem of generation of perturbations of a flat-plate boundary layer by external turbulence is solved. The turbulence is represented in the form of a set of space- and time-periodic vortex modes. It is shown that the boundary layer is most receptive to low-frequency longitudinal vorticity modes. The mean-square velocity fluctuations in the boundary layer and their spectrum are found for isotropic turbulence with a spectrum satisfying the Kolmogorov-Obukhov law.