| Abstract: | Numerous experiments on subsonic flow of gas past thin wing profiles (see the reviews 1, 2]) have shown that the flow near the leading edge of an airfoil is separationless only at angles of attack less than a certain critical value, which depends on the shape of the airfoil. If the angle of attack reaches the critical value, a closed region of recirculation flow of small extension is formed on the upper surface of the airfoil. Under ordinary flow conditions, the boundary layer on the leading edge of the airfoil remains laminar in the entire preseparation range of angles of attack. However, the appearance of the closed separation region is, as a rule, accompanied by transition from a laminar to a turbulent flow regime. Moreover, generation of turbulence is observed precisely in the flow separation region. The present paper is devoted to a study of the stability of the boundary layer on the leading edge of a thin airfoil in a flow of incompressible fluid. The case when the angle of attack of the airfoil relative to the oncoming flow differs little from the critical value is considered.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 6, pp. 55–63, November–December, 1982. |
