Abstract: | The results of an experimental investigation of the three-dimensional stability of a boundary layer with a pressure gradient are presented. A low-turbulence subsonic wind tunnel was employed. The development of a three-dimensional wave packet of oscillations harmonic in time in the boundary layer on a model wing is studied. The amplitudephase distributions of the pulsations in the wave packet are subjected to a Fourier analysis. Spectral (with respect to the wave numbers) decomposition of the oscillations enables the flow stability with respect to plane waves with different directions of propagation to be examined. The results are compared with the corresponding data obtained in flat plate experiments. The effect of the pressure gradient on the development of the three-dimensional spectral components of the disturbances and the dispersion properties of the flow is analyzed.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 85–91, May–June, 1988. |