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Technical Paper

Three-Dimensional Boundary Layer Stability and Transition

1992-10-01
921991
Nonparallel and nonlinear stability of a three-dimensional boundary layer, subject to crossflow instability, is investigated using parabolized stability equations (PSE). Both traveling and stationary disturbances are considered and nonparallel effect on crossflow instability is found to be destabilizing. Our linear PSE results for stationary disturbances agree well with the results from direct solution of Navier-Stokes equations obtained by Spalart (1989). Nonlinear calculations have been carried out for stationary vortices and the computed wall vorticity pattern results in streamwise streaks which resemble remarkably well with the surface oil-flow visualizations in swept-wing experiments. Other features of the stationary vortex development (half-mushroom structure, inflected velocity profiles, vortex doubling, etc.) are also captured in our nonlinear calculations. Nonlinear interaction of the stationary and traveling waves is also studied.
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