Boundary-layer disturbances subjected to free-stream turbulence and simulation on bypass transition

The phenomena associated with the entrainment of free-stream turbulence (FST) into boundary-layer flows are relevant for a number of subjects. It has been believed that the continuous spectra of the Orr-Sommerfeld (O-S)/Squire equations describe the entrainment process, and thus they are used to specify the inlet condition in simulation of bypass transition. However, Dong and Wu (Dong, M. and Wu, X. On continuous spectra of the Orr-Sommerfeld/Squire equations and entrainment of free-stream vortical disturbances. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 732, 616–659 (2013)) pointed out that continuous spectra exhibit several non-physical features due to neglecting the non-parallelism. They further proposed a large-Reynolds-number asymptotic approach, and showed that the non-parallelism is a leading-order effect even for the short-wavelength disturbance, for which the response concentrates in the edge layer. In this paper, the asymptotic solution is verified numerically by studying its evolution in incompressible boundary layers. It is found that the numerical results can be accurately predicted by the asymptotic solution, implying that the latter is adequate for moderate Reynolds numbers. By introducing a series of such solutions as the inflow perturbations, the bypass transition is investigated via the direct numerical simulation (DNS). The transition processes, including the evolution of streaks, the amplification of secondary-instability modes, and the emergence of turbulent spots, agree with the experimental observations.