scholarly journals Stability of zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer distorted by unsteady Klebanoff streaks

2011 ◽  
Vol 681 ◽  
pp. 116-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICHOLAS J. VAUGHAN ◽  
TAMER A. ZAKI

The secondary instability of a zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer, distorted by unsteady Klebanoff streaks, is investigated. The base profiles for the analysis are computed using direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the boundary-layer response to forcing by individual free-stream modes, which are low frequency and dominated by streamwise vorticity. Therefore, the base profiles take into account the nonlinear development of the streaks and mean flow distortion, upstream of the location chosen for the stability analyses. The two most unstable modes were classified as an inner and an outer instability, with reference to the position of their respective critical layers inside the boundary layer. Their growth rates were reported for a range of frequencies and amplitudes of the base streaks. The inner mode has a connection to the Tollmien–Schlichting (T–S) wave in the limit of vanishing streak amplitude. It is stabilized by the mean flow distortion, but its growth rate is enhanced with increasing amplitude and frequency of the base streaks. The outer mode only exists in the presence of finite amplitude streaks. The analysis of the outer instability extends the results of Andersson et al. (J. Fluid Mech. vol. 428, 2001, p. 29) to unsteady base streaks. It is shown that base-flow unsteadiness promotes instability and, as a result, leads to a lower critical streak amplitude. The results of linear theory are complemented by DNS of the evolution of the inner and outer instabilities in a zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer. Both instabilities lead to breakdown to turbulence and, in the case of the inner mode, transition proceeds via the formation of wave packets with similar structure and wave speeds to those reported by Nagarajan, Lele & Ferziger (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 572, 2007, p. 471).

2009 ◽  
Vol 637 ◽  
pp. 173-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
XUESONG WU ◽  
PATRICK HUERRE

A possible fundamental physical mechanism by which instability modes generate sound waves in subsonic jets is presented in the present paper. It involves a wavepacket of a pair of helical instability modes with nearly the same frequencies but opposite azimuthal wavenumbers. As the wavepacket undergoes simultaneous spatial–temporal development in a circular jet, the mutual interaction between the helical modes generates a strong three-dimensional, slowly modulating ‘mean-flow distortion’. It is demonstrated that this ‘mean field’ radiates sound waves to the far field. The emitted sound is of very low frequency, with characteristic time and length scales being comparable with those of the envelope of the wavepacket, which acts as a non-compact source. A matched-asymptotic-expansion approach is used to determine, in a self-consistent manner, the acoustic field in terms of the envelope of the wavepacket and a transfer factor characterizing the refraction effect of the background base flow. For realistic jet spreading rates, the nonlinear development of the wavepacket is found to be influenced simultaneously by non-parallelism and non-equilibrium effects, and so a composite modulation equation including both effects is constructed in order to describe the entire growth–attenuation–decay cycle. Parametric studies pertaining to relevant experimental conditions indicate that the acoustic field is characterized by a single-lobed directivity pattern beamed at an angle about 45°–60° to the jet axis and a broadband spectrum centred at a Strouhal number St ≈ 0.07–0.2. As the nonlinear effect increases, the radiation becomes more efficient and the noise spectrum broadens, but the gross features of the acoustic field remain robust, and are broadly in agreement with experimental observations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 758 ◽  
pp. 238-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Plogmann ◽  
W. Würz ◽  
E. Krämer

AbstractRoughness-induced transition is one of the main parameters contributing to performance loss of airfoils. Within this paper, the disturbance evolution downstream of a single, cylindrical roughness element, which is placed in a laminar boundary layer in an airfoil leading edge region, is investigated. The experiments focus on medium height roughness elements with respect to the local boundary layer displacement thickness. Hence, transition is not directly tripped at the roughness element. The roughness diameter is comparable to the streamwise wavelength of the most amplified (linear) disturbance eigenmodes. The vortical structures observed downstream of the roughness are in agreement with previous findings in the literature. In the near roughness wake, a distinct growth of high-frequency (fundamental) modes, that is modes with a high $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}n$-factor at the roughness location, is observed. In the far roughness wake, these fundamental modes recover linear stability characteristics due to a possible relaxation of the mean flow. However, an interaction of particularly two-dimensional fundamental modes and by the roughness interference excited oblique fundamental modes results in an excitation of subharmonic type, low-frequency combination modes, which are associated with a phase-locked interaction mechanism. Depending on the initial growth of the fundamental modes in the near wake, the low-frequency modes can experience a nonlinear growth in the far roughness wake and, thereby, trip turbulence. The fundamental mode growth rate in the near wake in turn is a weak function of the disturbance frequency and of the pressure gradient, whereas it is decisively increasing with the roughness height, that is with the mean flow distortion caused by the roughness.


2014 ◽  
Vol 741 ◽  
pp. 228-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mochamad Dady Ma’mun ◽  
Masahito Asai ◽  
Ayumu Inasawa

AbstractThe effects of surface corrugation with small amplitude on the growth of Tollmien–Schlichting (T–S) waves were examined experimentally in a zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer. Two- and three-dimensional corrugations of sinusoidal geometry with wavelengths of the same order as that of the two-dimensional T–S wave were considered. The corrugation amplitudes were one order of magnitude smaller than the boundary-layer displacement thickness. Streamwise growth of T–S waves on the corrugated walls was compared with that in the boundary layer on the smooth surface. A distinct difference was found in the destabilizing effect between the two- and three-dimensional corrugations. The two-dimensional corrugation significantly enhanced the growth of two-dimensional T–S waves even when the corrugation amplitude was only ∼10% of the displacement thickness. On decreasing the corrugation amplitude, the growth rate of two-dimensional T–S waves asymptotically approached that in the smooth-wall case. On the other hand, the three-dimensional corrugation had only a small influence on the growth of two-dimensional T–S waves even when the corrugation amplitude was as large as 20% of the displacement thickness. For three-dimensional corrugations, however, a pair of oblique waves was generated and developed by an interaction between the two-dimensional T–S wave and the corrugation-induced mean-flow distortion for the corrugation wavelength considered. On increasing the corrugation amplitude, the oblique waves generated were increased in amplitude and thus significantly influenced the secondary instability process.


2001 ◽  
Vol 432 ◽  
pp. 69-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUDOLPH A. KING ◽  
KENNETH S. BREUER

An experimental investigation was conducted to examine acoustic receptivity and subsequent boundary-layer instability evolution for a Blasius boundary layer formed on a flat plate in the presence of two-dimensional and oblique (three-dimensional) surface waviness. The effect of the non-localized surface roughness geometry and acoustic wave amplitude on the receptivity process was explored. The surface roughness had a well-defined wavenumber spectrum with fundamental wavenumber kw. A planar downstream-travelling acoustic wave was created to temporally excite the flow near the resonance frequency of an unstable eigenmode corresponding to kts = kw. The range of acoustic forcing levels, ε, and roughness heights, Δh, examined resulted in a linear dependence of receptivity coefficients; however, the larger values of the forcing combination εΔh resulted in subsequent nonlinear development of the Tollmien–Schlichting (T–S) wave. This study provides the first experimental evidence of a marked increase in the receptivity coefficient with increasing obliqueness of the surface waviness in excellent agreement with theory. Detuning of the two-dimensional and oblique disturbances was investigated by varying the streamwise wall-roughness wavenumber αw and measuring the T–S response. For the configuration where laminar-to-turbulent breakdown occurred, the breakdown process was found to be dominated by energy at the fundamental and harmonic frequencies, indicative of K-type breakdown.


2002 ◽  
Vol 472 ◽  
pp. 229-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUCA BRANDT ◽  
DAN S. HENNINGSON

A transition scenario initiated by streamwise low- and high-speed streaks in a flat-plate boundary layer is studied. In many shear flows, the perturbations that show the highest potential for transient energy amplification consist of streamwise-aligned vortices. Due to the lift-up mechanism these optimal disturbances lead to elongated streamwise streaks downstream, with significant spanwise modulation. In a previous investigation (Andersson et al. 2001), the stability of these streaks in a zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer was studied by means of Floquet theory and numerical simulations. The sinuous instability mode was found to be the most dangerous disturbance. We present here the first simulation of the breakdown to turbulence originating from the sinuous instability of streamwise streaks. The main structures observed during the transition process consist of elongated quasi-streamwise vortices located on the flanks of the low-speed streak. Vortices of alternating sign are overlapping in the streamwise direction in a staggered pattern. The present scenario is compared with transition initiated by Tollmien–Schlichting waves and their secondary instability and by-pass transition initiated by a pair of oblique waves. The relevance of this scenario to transition induced by free-stream turbulence is also discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 929 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Agastya Balantrapu ◽  
Christopher Hickling ◽  
W. Nathan Alexander ◽  
William Devenport

Experiments were performed over a body of revolution at a length-based Reynolds number of 1.9 million. While the lateral curvature parameters are moderate ( $\delta /r_s < 2, r_s^+>500$ , where $\delta$ is the boundary layer thickness and r s is the radius of curvature), the pressure gradient is increasingly adverse ( $\beta _{C} \in [5 \text {--} 18]$ where $\beta_{C}$ is Clauser’s pressure gradient parameter), representative of vehicle-relevant conditions. The mean flow in the outer regions of this fully attached boundary layer displays some properties of a free-shear layer, with the mean-velocity and turbulence intensity profiles attaining self-similarity with the ‘embedded shear layer’ scaling (Schatzman & Thomas, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 815, 2017, pp. 592–642). Spectral analysis of the streamwise turbulence revealed that, as the mean flow decelerates, the large-scale motions energize across the boundary layer, growing proportionally with the boundary layer thickness. When scaled with the shear layer parameters, the distribution of the energy in the low-frequency region is approximately self-similar, emphasizing the role of the embedded shear layer in the large-scale motions. The correlation structure of the boundary layer is discussed at length to supply information towards the development of turbulence and aeroacoustic models. One major finding is that the estimation of integral turbulence length scales from single-point measurements, via Taylor's hypothesis, requires significant corrections to the convection velocity in the inner 50 % of the boundary layer. The apparent convection velocity (estimated from the ratio of integral length scale to the time scale), is approximately 40 % greater than the local mean velocity, suggesting the turbulence is convected much faster than previously thought. Closer to the wall even higher corrections are required.


Author(s):  
Sahib Singh Chawla

The laminar boundary layer on a magnetized plate, when the magnetic field oscillates in magnitude about a constant non-zero mean, is analysed. For low-frequency fluctuations the solution is obtained by a series expansion in terms of a frequency parameter, while for high frequencies the flow pattern is of the ‘skin-wave’ type unaffected by the mean flow. In the low-frequency range, the phase lead and the amplitude of the skin-friction oscillations increase at first and then decrease to their respective ‘skin-wave’ values. On the other hand the phase angle of the surface current decreases from 90° to 45° and its amplitude increases with frequency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 877 ◽  
pp. 167-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng-Yuan Zuo ◽  
Antonio Memmolo ◽  
Guo-ping Huang ◽  
Sergio Pirozzoli

Direct numerical simulation of the Navier–Stokes equations is carried out to investigate the interaction of a conical shock wave with a turbulent boundary layer developing over a flat plate at free-stream Mach number $M_{\infty }=2.05$ and Reynolds number $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}}\approx 630$, based on the upstream boundary layer momentum thickness. The shock is generated by a circular cone with half opening angle $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{c}=25^{\circ }$. As found in experiments, the wall pressure exhibits a distinctive N-wave signature, with a sharp peak right past the precursor shock generated at the cone apex, followed by an extended zone with favourable pressure gradient, and terminated by the trailing shock associated with recompression in the wake of the cone. The boundary layer behaviour is strongly affected by the imposed pressure gradient. Streaks are suppressed in adverse pressure gradient (APG) zones, but re-form rapidly in downstream favourable pressure gradient (FPG) zones. Three-dimensional mean flow separation is only observed in the first APG region associated with the formation of a horseshoe vortex, whereas the second APG region features an incipient detachment state, with scattered spots of instantaneous reversed flow. As found in canonical geometrically two-dimensional wedge-generated shock–boundary layer interactions, different amplification of the turbulent stress components is observed through the interacting shock system, with approach to an isotropic state in APG regions, and to a two-component anisotropic state in FPG. The general adequacy of the Boussinesq hypothesis is found to predict the spatial organization of the turbulent shear stresses, although different eddy viscosities should be used for each component, as in tensor eddy-viscosity models, or in full Reynolds stress closures.


Author(s):  
Jonathan H. Watmuff

Experiments are described in which well-defined FSN (Free Stream Nonuniformity) distributions are introduced by placing fine wires upstream of the leading edge of a flat plate. Large amplitude spanwise thickness variations are present in the downstream boundary layer resulting from the interaction of the laminar wakes with the leading edge. Regions of elevated background unsteadiness appear on either side of the peak layer thickness, which share many of the characteristics of Klebanoff modes, observed at elevated Free Stream Turbulence (FST) levels. However, for the low background disturbance level of the free stream, the layer remains laminar to the end of the test section (Rx ≈ l.4×106) and there is no evidence of bursting or other phenomena associated with breakdown to turbulence. A vibrating ribbon apparatus is used to demonstrate that the deformation of the mean flow is responsible for substantial phase and amplitude distortion of Tollmien-Schlichting (TS) waves. Pseudo-flow visualization of hot-wire data shows that the breakdown of the distorted waves is more complex and occurs at a lower Reynolds number than the breakdown of the K-type secondary instability observed when the FSN is not present.


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