Propagation of a Tollmien-Schlichting wave over the junction between rigid and compliant surfaces

Abstract

The propagation of an instability wave over the junction region between rigid and compliant panels is studied theoretically. The problem is investigated using three different methods with reference to flow in a plane channel containing sections with elastic walls. Within the framework of the first approach, using the solution of the problem of flow receptivity to local wall vibration, the problem considered is reduced to the solution of an integro-differential equation for the complex wall oscillation amplitude. It is shown that at the junction of rigid and elastic channel walls the instability-wave amplitude changes stepwise. For calculating the step value, another, analytical, method of investigating the perturbation propagation process, based on representing the solution as a superposition of modes of the locally homogeneous problem, is proposed. This method is also applied to calculating the flow stability characteristics in channels containing one or more elastic sections or consisting of periodically alternating rigid and compliant sections. The third method represents the unknown solution as the sum of a local forced solution and a superposition of orthogonal modes of flow in a channel with rigid walls. The latter method can be used for calculating the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the stability problem for flow in a channel with uniformly compliant walls.