Non-parallel stability analysis of three-dimensional boundary layers along an infinite attachment line

2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nobutake Itoh
1996 ◽  
Vol 317 ◽  
pp. 129-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nobutake Itoh

A new instability of the centrifugal type due to the curvature of external streamlines was theoretically predicted in a recent study on boundary layers along a swept wing. It is, however, not clear how this instability relates to already-known instability phenomena in various three-dimensional flows. So the basic idea developed in the analysis of boundary layers is applied to the simpler problems of the flow on a rotating disk and along the leading edge of a yawed circular cylinder, and the resulting eigenvalue problems are numerically solved to show multiple stability characteristics of the flows. Computational results confirm that the streamline-curvature instability does appear in the rotating-disk flow and that it is in fact identical with the instability called the ‘parallel’ or ‘type 2’ mode in the atmospheric literature. This instability is also found to occur in the steady flow near the attachment line and to give the lowest values of the critical Reynolds number except for a very narrow region close to the attachment line, where the viscous and cross-flow instabilities are dominant. These facts provide evidence to show that the same mode of instability as the classical one observed in rotating flows can appear in general three-dimensional boundary layers without rotation.


1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryoji Kobayashi

The laminar-turbulent transition of three-dimensional boundary layers is critically reviewed for some typical axisymmetric bodies rotating in still fluid or in axial flow. The flow structures of the transition regions are visualized. The transition phenomena are driven by the compound of the Tollmien-Schlichting instability, the crossflow instability, and the centrifugal instability. Experimental evidence is provided relating the critical and transition Reynolds numbers, defined in terms of the local velocity and the boundary layer momentum thickness, to the local rotational speed ratio, defined as the ratio of the circumferential speed to the free-stream velocity at the outer edge of the boundary layer, for the rotating disk, the rotating cone, the rotating sphere and other rotating axisymmetric bodies. It is shown that the cross-sectional structure of spiral vortices appearing in the transition regions and the flow pattern of the following secondary instability in the case of the crossflow instability are clearly different than those in the case of the centrifugal instability.


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