A theoretical investigation of the development of stationary crossflow vortices in the boundary layer on a swept wing

Crossflow instability plays very important role in the transition of the boundary layer on a swept wing, typical in the engineering applications. Experiments revealed that the linear stability theory well predicted the form of the crossflow vortices, but usually much overpredicted their growth rate. Using nonlinear theory of hydrodynamic stability, combined with some other considerations, we were able to obtain the growth rate in good agreement with experimental observations. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant No. 19572048