Spanwise Wavenumber Research Articles

Stability of finite-length collapsible channel flow to spanwise perturbations

We consider flow through a finite-length flexible-walled channel formed by removing a portion from one wall of a wide rigid channel and replacing by a pre-tensioned hyperelastic sheet of finite thickness. The flow is driven by a prescribed upstream flow rate which is uniform along the channel inlet, and so with periodic boundary conditions in the transverse direction the system admits a steady state with a wall profile which is deformed in the streamwise direction but spatially uniform in the spanwise direction. Identical to the planar case, this system exhibits two stable static configurations: an upper branch where the flexible wall is mostly inflated and a lower branch where the wall is highly collapsed. We consider the stability of these steady states to spanwise perturbations, showing that both can become unstable to distinct families of self-excited oscillations. In particular, for large spanwise wavenumbers, these steady states are unstable to oscillatory normal modes where the perturbation wall profile has a single oscillating hump in the streamwise direction, not previously seen in collapsible channel flows driven by fixed upstream flux. Furthermore, for sufficiently large wavenumbers and no wall pre-tension in the spanwise direction, this system is always unstable to a new spanwise non-uniform static configuration, which arises due to the merging of a pair of unstable oscillatory normal modes. However, with non-zero spanwise wall pre-tension, there is always a region of parameter space where the spanwise uniform steady state is stable for all wavenumbers.

Nonmodal stability analysis of Poiseuille flow through a porous medium

We unravel the nonmodal stability of a three-dimensional nonstratified Poiseuille flow in a saturated hyperporous medium constrained by impermeable rigid parallel plates. The primary objective is to broaden the scope of previous studies that conducted modal stability analysis for two-dimensional disturbances. Here, we explore both temporal and spatial transient disturbance energy growths for three-dimensional disturbances when the Reynolds number and porosity of the material are high, based on evolution equations with respect to time and space, respectively. Modal stability analysis reveals that the critical Reynolds number for the onset of shear mode instability increases as porosity increases. Moreover, the Darcy viscous drag term stabilizes shear mode instability, resulting in a delay in the transition from laminar flow to turbulence. In addition, it demonstrates the suppression of three-dimensional shear mode instability as the spanwise wavenumber increases, thereby confirming the statement of Squire’s theorem. By contrast, nonmodal stability analysis discloses that both temporal and spatial transient disturbance energy growths curtail as the effect of the Darcy viscous drag force intensifies. But their maximum values behave like O(Re2) for a fixed porous material, where Re is the Reynolds number. However, for different porous materials, the scalings for both temporal and spatial transient disturbance energy growths are different. Furthermore, increasing porosity also suppresses both temporal and spatial disturbance energy growths. Finally, we observe that temporal transient disturbance energy growth becomes larger for a spanwise perturbation, while spatial transient disturbance energy growth becomes larger for a steady perturbation when angular frequency vanishes. The initial disturbance that excites the largest temporal energy amplification generates two sets of alternating high-speed and low-speed elongated streaks in the streamwise direction.

Instability and transition control by steady local blowing/suction in a hypersonic boundary layer

The efficacy of steady large-amplitude blowing/suction on instability and transition control for a hypersonic flat plate boundary layer with Mach number 5.86 is investigated systematically. The influence of the blowing/suction flux and amplitude on instability is examined through direct numerical simulation and resolvent analysis. When a relatively small flux is used, the two-dimensional instability critical frequency that distinguishes the promotion/suppression mode effect closely aligns with the synchronisation frequency. For the oblique wave, as the spanwise wavenumber increases, the suppression effects would become weaker and the mode suppression bandwidth diminishes/increases in general in the blowing/suction control. Increasing the blowing/suction flux can effectively broaden the frequency bandwidth of disturbance suppression. The influence of amplitude on disturbance suppression is weak in a scenario of constant flux. To gain a deeper insight into disturbance suppression mechanism, momentum potential theory (MPT) and kinetic energy budget analysis are further employed in analysing disturbance evolution with and without control. When the disturbance is suppressed, the blowing induces the transport of certain acoustic components along the compression wave out of the boundary layer, whereas the suction does not. The velocity fluctuations are derived from the momentum fluctuations of the MPT. Compared with the momentum fluctuations, the evolutions indicated by each component's velocity fluctuations greatly facilitate the investigations of the acoustic nature of the second mode. The rapid variation of disturbance amplitude near the blowing is caused by the oscillations of the acoustic component and phase speed differences between vortical and thermal components. Kinetic energy budget analysis is performed to address the non-parallel effect of the boundary layer introduced by blowing/suction, which tends to suppress disturbances near the blowing. Moreover, viscous effects leading to energy dissipation are identified to be stronger in regions where the boundary layer is rapidly thickening. Finally, it is demonstrated that a flat plate boundary layer transition triggered by a random disturbance can be delayed by a blowing/suction combination control. The resolvent analysis further demonstrates that disturbances with frequencies that dominate the early transition stage are dampened in the controlled base flow.

Breakdown mechanisms induced by stationary crossflow vortices in hypersonic three-dimensional boundary layers

This study investigates the crossflow breakdown of a Mach 6 flow over a swept flat plate by direct numerical simulation (DNS) considering three cases with different spanwise wavenumbers of stationary vortices. Transition in these cases is initiated by the linear and nonlinear evolution of these vortices, followed by secondary instabilities and breakdown due to type-I, type-II modes, and wall blowing/suction perturbations, respectively. The results showed that amplified secondary instabilities significantly distort the mean flow, causing a steep rise in the wall friction coefficient. Fourier analysis shows that, in this fast-varying flow region, the low-frequency disturbances undergo significantly greater amplifications than high-frequency disturbances. Moreover, the stability characteristics of the time- and spanwise-averaged mean flow were examined to elucidate the breakdown mechanisms. It was found that the unstable region initially contracts to a lower frequency band and then expands significantly in the spanwise wavenumber range at low frequencies. This suggests the significant amplifications of low-frequency disturbances, consistent with the observations from DNS. These amplified low-frequency disturbances, in turn, modify the mean flow, leading to the final breakdown. The presented mechanisms, highlighting the critical role of low-frequency disturbances in the breakdown process, are likely to be universally relevant across various parameter regimes.

Analytic Prediction of Rotor Broadband Noise with Serrated Trailing Edges with Applications to Urban Air Mobility Aircraft

Theoretical predictions for broadband noise generated by rotors with serrated trailing edges are presented. This study extends Lyu and Ayton’s model for serrated trailing-edge noise to account for factors such as finite span length, the accurate acoustic attenuation rate of trailing-edge noise, modified spanwise wavenumber, and the proper scattering factor. This new model is implemented in the rotorcraft broadband noise tool, UCD‐QuietFly. The validation results demonstrate a satisfactory level of agreement with the experimental data for serrated trailing‐edge noise of a wing section, a hovering rotor, and a forward‐flight rotor. Next, the effects of serration parameters, such as the number of serrations, serrations starting radial location, serration geometry, and serration height, on rotor broadband noise are investigated. For example, it is observed that sine-wave, chopped peak, or sawtooth serration shapes provide the most significant noise reduction among the various shapes considered. Finally, broadband noise reduction through serrations is applied to two urban air mobility aircraft scenarios: a six‐passenger quadrotor and a quiet helicopter. For the quadrotor, serrated trailing edges show a noise reduction potential of over 9 dB, with higher reductions observed at higher tip speeds and fewer blades. A quiet helicopter equipped with serrated blades in forward flight achieves a maximum noise reduction of over 10 dB in the forward direction.

Stability of plane Couette flow under anisotropic superhydrophobic effects

We study the linear stability of plane Couette flow subject to an anisotropic slip boundary condition that models the slip effect of parallel microgrooves with a misalignment about the direction of the wall motion. This boundary condition has been reported to be able to destabilize channel flow far below the critical Reynolds number of the no-slip case. Unlike channel flow, the no-slip plane Couette flow is known to be linearly stable at arbitrary Reynolds numbers. Nevertheless, the results show that the slip can cause linear instability at finite Reynolds numbers also. The misalignment angle of the microgrooves that maximizes the destabilizing effect is nearly π/4, and the unstable modes are of small streamwise wavenumbers and relatively large spanwise wavenumbers. The flow is always more destabilized by two slippery walls compared to a single slippery wall. These observations are in qualitative agreement with the slippery channel flow with the same boundary condition, indicating that such an anisotropic superhydrophobic effect has a rather general destabilizing effect in shear flows regardless of the profile of the base flow. The absence of the Tollmien–Schlichting instability allows us to reveal the inverse relationship between the critical Reynolds number and the slip length as well as the misalignment in the small-parameter regime. The results suggest that arbitrary nonvanishing slip length and misalignment, with arbitrarily weak anisotropy, may suffice to destabilize plane Couette flow.

Regulating turbulent separation by surface microstructures on a blunt plate

Microstructured surfaces can induce secondary flow and regulate flow structures of the turbulent separation flow. However, the mechanism governing the relationship between the microstructure size and the characteristic flow size remains unclear. In this study, the separated flow over a blunt flat plate with surface microstructures is studied using time-resolved particle image velocimetry experiments and implicit large-eddy simulations for the plate-thickness-based Reynolds number from 5.08×103 to 1.31×104. The ratio of the height of microstructures to the plate thickness (h/d) ranges from 0.01 to 0.1. Combining experimental and numerical results, the relationships between the separation bubble size and the microstructure size under different Reynolds numbers exhibit similarity when normalized by the separation bubble size of the smooth plate. The dimensionless separation bubble size decreases when the microstructure height increases and large microstructures (h/d = 0.1) exhibit good performance on reducing the flow separation. Near the leading edge, the distortion of two-dimensional vortices and the generation of three-dimensional hairpin vortices are promoted by the first several rows of large microstructures. Additionally, in the main separation region, secondary positive spanwise vortices emerge from large microstructures. Subsequently, the secondary vortices lift up and evolve into streamwise vortices. The characteristic scale of secondary vortices is represented by a significant peak in the spectra of spanwise wavenumbers, which is of the same magnitude as the height of large microstructures. Furthermore, increasing the microstructure height weakens the streamwise correlation of the flow, and the characteristic scale of the correlation is comparable to the height of large microstructures.

Invariant scaling laws for plane Couette flow with wall-transpiration

The effect of the wall-transpiration Reynolds number ReV0 on the large-scale rolls of the plane Couette flow with wall-transpiration is investigated using resolvent analysis. We observe streamwise-elongated large-scale rolls, moving closer to the suction wall and becoming narrower in the wall-normal and spanwise direction as well as shortened in the streamwise direction for growing ReV0 due to the decreasing characteristic length of the sheared region. Invariant scaling laws describing the growth of the amplification gain over various parameters and determining the optimal parameters yielding most amplification are found enhancing our understanding of the influence on the coherent structures, which can be used to predict their exact size. In a potential second step, this allows to manipulate and efficiently modify these flow characteristics increasing the functionality for various engineering applications as for mass, momentum and heat transfer, which is dominated by turbulent superstructures. For large enough wall-transpiration, the most amplified structures are oblique at optimal streamwise wavenumbers αmax≠0 growing linearly with ReV0. The optimal spanwise wavenumber βmax yielding most amplified structures shows a polynomial dependence of second order on ReV0. For a constant ratio of the wall-transpiration and streamwise Reynolds numbers γ=ReV0Re, the most amplified structures occur at optimal streamwise Reynolds numbers represented by Remax·γa=C. The amplification gain changes its trend from growing with Re2 to decreasing with Re−1.368 after Remax is reached. The resulting streamwise structures are identical for each set of Remax and γ within this invariant scaling law.

Stability of low-pressure turbine boundary layers under variable Reynolds number and pressure gradient

The free-stream turbulence induced transition occurring under typical low-pressure turbine flow conditions is investigated by comparing linear stability theory with wind tunnel measurements acquired over a flat plate subjected to high turbulence intensity. The analysis was carried out, accounting for three different Reynolds numbers and four different adverse pressure gradients. First, a non-similarity-based boundary layer (BL) solver was used to compute base flows and validated against pressure taps and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. Successively, the optimal disturbances and their spatial transient growth were calculated by coupling classical linear stability theory and a direct-adjoint optimization procedure on all flow conditions considered. Linear stability results were compared with experimental particle image velocimetry measurements on both wall-normal and wall-parallel planes. Finally, the sensitivity of the disturbance spatial transient growth to the spanwise wavenumber of perturbations, the receptivity position, and the location where disturbance energy is maximized were investigated via the built numerical model. Overall, the optimal perturbations computed by linear stability theory show good agreement with the streaky structures surveyed in experiments. Interestingly, the energy growth of disturbances was found to be maximum for all the flow conditions examined, when perturbations entered the boundary layer close to the position where minimum pressure occurs.

Turbulent transition in a channel with superhydrophobic walls: anisotropic slip and shear misalignment effects

Superhydrophobic surfaces dramatically reduce skin friction of overlying liquid flows. These surfaces are complex and numerical simulations usually rely on models to reduce this complexity. One of the simplest consists of finding an equivalent boundary condition through a homogenisation procedure, which in the case of channel flow over oriented riblets, leads to the presence of a small spanwise component in the homogenised base flow velocity. This work aims at investigating the influence of such a three-dimensionality of the base flow on stability and transition in a channel with walls covered by oriented riblets. Linear stability for this base flow is investigated: a new instability region, linked to cross-flow effects, is observed. Tollmien–Schlichting waves are also retrieved but the most unstable are three-dimensional. Transient growth is also affected as oblique streaks with non-zero streamwise wavenumber become the most amplified perturbations. When transition is induced by Tollmien–Schlichting waves, after an initial exponential growth regime, streaky structures with large spanwise wavenumber rapidly arise. Modal mechanisms appear to play a leading role in the development of these structures and a secondary stability analysis is performed to retrieve successfully some of their characteristics. The second scenario, initiated with cross-flow vortices, displays a strong influence of nonlinearities. The flow develops into large quasi-spanwise-invariant structures before breaking down to turbulence. Secondary stability on the saturated cross-flow vortices sheds light on this stage of transition. In both cases, cross-flow effects dominate the flow dynamics, suggesting the need to consider the anisotropicity of the wall condition when modelling superhydrophobic surfaces.

Transient energy growth analysis of flat-plate boundary layer with an oblique and non-uniform wall suction and injection

This paper presents a non-modal bi-global linear stability analysis of an incompressible flat-plate boundary layer under the effects of oblique and non-uniform wall suction and injection. The base flow velocity profile is two-dimensional and fully non-parallel. The flow is laminar at the inflow boundary, and no reverse flow occurs in the flow domain. The Chebyshev spectral collocation method has been used for the discretization of the governing stability equations. The discretized stability equations along with appropriate boundary conditions form an initial value problem (IVP). The transient energy growth (G(t)) and associated optimal perturbations are computed for different oblique angles (θ=30°,60°,90°,120°, and 150°), suction and injection intensities (I=0.5%, 1.5%, and 2.5% of U∞), Reynolds numbers (Re=195,284, and 411), and different spanwise wavenumbers (β=0−2) for uniform and non-uniform profiles of wall suction and injection. The behaviour of the boundary layer is found to be approximately similar but opposite in nature for θ=90° to 180° and θ=0° to 90° due to lower transpiration intensity. The G(t) decreases with the increase in θ from 0° to 90° for wall suction due to the damping of T–S modes. However, an opposite trend has been observed for injection due to the amplification of T–S modes. The uniform profile is found to be more effective than the non-uniform profiles of suction and injection in terms of their impact on the stability of the boundary layer. The 2D spatial structures of the optimal perturbations are damped and flow becomes modally stable as the spanwise wavenumber (β) is increased.

Accelerating turbulence in heated micron tubes at supercritical pressure

The purpose of this research was to provide further understanding of turbulent dynamics and heat transfer mechanisms in accelerating flows with thermophysical variations and pressure drops in micron tubes. Direct numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the turbulence to supercritical pressure ${\rm CO}_2$ in heated micron tubes with inner diameter $99.2~\mathrm {\mu }$ m. In general, the turbulent heat transfer enhancement/deterioration at supercritical pressure is dominated by variations in thermophysical properties, buoyancy and thermal acceleration; however, the mechanism differs in micron tubes ( $d^* < 100\ \mathrm {\mu }$ m). The results showed that the pressure drop and scale effect made significant contributions to the development of turbulence flows heated at supercritical pressure in micron tubes, leading to the prominent property change and flow acceleration in the inlet fully developed turbulent flow. The deviation on temperature distribution because of pressure changes was non-negligible. The primary contribution of the acceleration was the decay of a boundary layer, which significantly suppressed the production of turbulence and decreased heat transfer. The acceleration had stabilizing effects on the ejection and sweep motions of the turbulent flow. The high-speed fluid contributed to a new disturbance scenario of the flow with a larger spanwise wavenumber superimposed on existing perturbations. The high-speed streak width in the quasilaminar region was approximately $150$ – $160\nu /u_\tau$ in accelerating flow. In the micron tubes, the Reynolds stress events of quadrant Q4 contributed 60 % of the Reynolds stress, greater than those of quadrant Q2.

Coexistence of stationary Görtler and crossflow instabilities in boundary layers

The coexistence of stationary Görtler and crossflow instabilities in boundary layers covering incompressible to hypersonic regimes is investigated by varying the local sweep angle, pressure gradient, wall curvature, and wall temperature using linear stability analysis. The results show that increasing the local sweep angle under a fixed concave curvature in incompressible boundary layers leads to the appearance of two unstable modes at certain sweep angles, which is conventionally known as the “changeover” regime between the crossflow and Görtler modes. This study identifies a synchronization between the two modes under this condition, which is similar to multiple Görtler modes and thus referred to as Görtler–crossflow modes. Three scenarios are presented to describe the possible development of these modal instabilities. In addition, increasing the concave curvature destabilizes the instability, while introducing a pressure gradient stabilizes the instability and results in a shrinkage of the unstable band of the spanwise wavenumber, as reported in the literature. In supersonic and hypersonic boundary layers, synchronization can occur near specific sweep angles and under cold wall conditions in supersonic boundary layers. As Mach number increases, the synchronization regime shifts toward lower sweep angles and wall temperature, in which the former reflects a decline in crossflow strength relative to Görtler instability, while the latter indicates the influence of thermal effects on synchronization. In hypersonic boundary layers, the crossflow instability is insignificant compared with the Görtler instability. No synchronization is identified under various parameter changes, and the first Görtler–crossflow mode dominates across the entire spanwise wavenumber ranges.

Numerical Investigation of Hypersonic Flat-Plate Boundary Layer Transition Subjected to Bi-Frequency Synthetic Jet

Transition delaying is of great importance for the drag and heat flux reduction of hypersonic flight vehicles. The first mode, with low frequency, and the second mode, with high frequency, exist simultaneously during the transition through the hypersonic boundary layer. This paper proposes a novel bi-frequency synthetic jet to suppress low- and high-frequency disturbances at the same time. Orthogonal table and variance analyses were used to compare the control effects of jets with different positions (USJ or DSJ), low frequencies (f1), high frequencies (f2), and amplitudes (a). Linear stability analysis results show that, in terms of the growth rate varying with the frequency of disturbance, an upstream synthetic jet (USJ) with a specific frequency and amplitude can hinder the growth of both the first and second modes, thereby delaying the transition. On the other hand, a downstream synthetic jet (DSJ), regardless of other parameters, increases flow instability and accelerates the transition, with higher frequencies and amplitudes resulting in greater growth rates for both modes. Low frequencies had a significant effect on the first mode, but a weak effect on the second mode, whereas high frequencies demonstrated a favorable impact on both the first and second modes. In terms of the growth rate varying with the spanwise wave number, the control rule of the same parameter under different spanwise wave numbers was different, resulting in a complex pattern. In order to obtain the optimal delay effect upon transition and improve the stability of the flow, the parameters of the bi-synthetic jet should be selected as follows: position it upstream, with f1 = 3.56 kHz, f2 = 89.9 kHz, a = 0.009, so that the maximum growth rate of the first mode is reduced by 9.06% and that of the second mode is reduced by 1.28% compared with the uncontrolled state, where flow field analysis revealed a weakening of the twin lattice structure of pressure pulsation.

Investigation of influence of local cooling/heating on nonlinear instability of high-speed boundary layer with direct numerical simulations

The influence of local cooling/heating on two types of nonlinear instabilities of the high-speed boundary layer, namely, the First and Second Mode Oblique Breakdown (FMOB and SMOB), is studied using direct numerical simulations. Local cooling and heating are performed at the weak and strong nonlinear stages of the two types of nonlinear instabilities. It is found that for the FMOB, local cooling at the weak nonlinear region will suppress the increase of the fundamental mode, leading to transition delay. Opposite to local cooling, local heating at the weak nonlinear region of the FMOB will promote the growth of the fundamental mode, resulting in the occurrence of more upstream transition onset. However, if local cooling and heating are performed at the strong nonlinear region, the influence of both local cooling and heating on the FMOB can be neglected. Remarkably, both local heating and cooling can delay the SMOB for different mechanisms. Performing local cooling at the weak nonlinear region of the SMOB, the low amplitude of higher spanwise wavenumber steady mode caused by local cooling lies behind transition delay. When local cooling is set at the strong nonlinear region, the low amplitude of harmonic modes around the cooling area can cause transition delay. Additionally, local heating will suppress the SMOB for the slowing amplification rate of various modes caused by the local heating at both the weak and strong nonlinear stages of the SMOB.

On the onset of long-wavelength three-dimensional instability in the cylinder wake

We study the onset of the three-dimensional mode A instability in the near wake behind a circular cylinder. We show that long-wavelength perturbations organise in a time-shifting pattern such that the in-plane velocity in each streamwise slice corresponds to the base flow solution at shifted times. This observation introduces an additional unifying characteristic for certain mode A type instabilities. We then analyse the mechanisms which control the growth or decay of these perturbations and highlight the crucial role played by the tilting mechanism which operates via non-local interactions in a manner similar to Biot–Savart induction. We characterise its domain of influence using a Green's function-based approach which allows us to rationalise the non-trivial dependence of the growth rate on the spanwise wavenumber. We connect this behaviour to the subtle balance between the local growth of the perturbations as they are swept along by the flow and the feedback on the perturbations that are generated during the next period of the time-periodic base flow. Finally, we discuss generalisations of our findings to other types of flows.

Linear stability analysis of a three-dimensional laminar separation bubble on a finite wing

Disturbance amplification in a laminar separation bubble forming on the suction surface of a cantilevered NACA0018 wing at an angle of attack of 6° and Reynolds number of 1.25 × 105 is studied using a combination of particle image velocimetry measurements and local and non-local linear stability analyses. The experimental measurements reveal the formation of largely two-dimensional velocity fluctuations leading to the formation of initially two-dimensional roll-up vortices in the separated shear layer at a nearly constant wavenumber and frequency, despite the substantial reduction in the effective angle of attack near the wing tip. The most amplified wavenumber and its growth rate are accurately predicted by linear stability theory outside of the regions of the separation bubble dominated by three-dimensional end effects, with negligible differences between local and non-local stability analyses. Near the wing root and tip, an increase in the magnitudes of spanwise velocities is observed within the laminar separation bubble, and linear stability calculations predict a relative increase in the amplification of spanwise wavenumbers with the same sign as the spanwise flow. However, the calculations show that the most amplified disturbance remains essentially two-dimensional across the entire wingspan.

Three-dimensional wall heating elements effect on the instability in zero pressure gradient supersonic boundary layers

The streaky boundary layers have very important roles in laminar-turbulent transition. Streaks of appropriate size can influence stabilities in boundary layers. In this paper, the effect of steady streamwise elongated, spanwise periodic wall heating elements on the first mode instability in supersonic flat plate boundary layers was investigated. For the balance of the efficient and accuracy, the linearized Navier–Stokes equations are used to obtain the base flow and compared with compressible Navier–Stokes equations. A bi-global analysis tool is used for the instability analysis because the heating source has a much larger length-scale in the streamwise direction than that in the spanwise direction, and the streamwise velocity is much larger than the normal velocity and the spanwise one. Results indicated that the distortion caused by the three-dimensional surface heating elements could modify the first mode, resulting in a lower frequency but with an uncertain effect on the higher frequency modes. Additionally, the streaks make the lower spanwise wave number components of the even first mode disturbance in a three-dimensional supersonic boundary layer in the freestream. As a result, the spontaneous radiation of an acoustic wave to the far field was found for the even mode. These findings suggest that laminar-turbulence transition can be suppressed or enhanced by the three-dimensional wall heating.

Global stability, sensitivity and passive control of low-Reynolds-number flows around NACA 4412 swept wings

The stability and sensitivity of two- and three-dimensional global modes developing on steady spanwise-homogeneous laminar separated flows around NACA 4412 swept wings are numerically investigated for different Reynolds numbers ${\textit {Re}}$ and angles of attack $\alpha$ . The wake dynamics is driven by the two-dimensional von Kármán mode whose emergence threshold in the $\alpha \unicode{x2013}{\textit {Re}}$ plane is computed with that of the three-dimensional centrifugal mode. At the critical Reynolds number, the Strouhal number, the streamwise wavenumber of the von Kármán mode and the spanwise wavenumber of the leading three-dimensional centrifugal mode scale as a power law of $\alpha$ . The introduction of a sweep angle attenuates the growth of all unstable modes and entails a Doppler effect in the leading modes’ dynamics and a shift towards non-zero frequencies of the three-dimensional centrifugal modes. These are found to be non-dispersive as opposed to the von Kármán modes. The sensitivity of the leading global modes is investigated in the vicinity of the critical conditions through adjoint-based methods. The growth-rate sensitivity map displays a region on the suction side of the wing, wherein a streamwise-oriented force has a net stabilising effect, comparable to what could have been obtained inside the recirculation bubble. In agreement with the predictions of the sensitivity analysis, a spanwise-homogeneous force suppresses the Hopf bifurcation and stabilises the entire branch of von Kármán modes. In the limit of small amplitudes, passive control via spanwise-wavy forcing produces a stabilising effect similar to that of a spanwise-homogeneous control and is more effective than localised spherical forces.

Convective instabilities in a laminar shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction

Linear stability analyses are performed to study the dynamics of linear convective instability mechanisms in a laminar shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction at Mach 1.7. In order to account for all two-dimensional gradients elliptically, we introduce perturbations into an initial-value problem that are found as solutions to an eigenvalue problem formulated in a moving frame of reference. We demonstrate that this methodology provides results that are independent of the numerical setup, frame speed, and type of eigensolutions used as initial conditions. The obtained time-integrated wave packets are then Fourier-transformed to recover individual-frequency amplification curves. This allows us to determine the dominant spanwise wavenumber and frequency yielding the largest amplification of perturbations in the shock-induced recirculation bubble. By decomposing the temporal wave-packet growth rate into the physical energy-production processes, we provide an in-depth characterization of the convective instability mechanisms in the shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction. For the particular case studied, the largest growth rate is achieved in the near-vicinity of the bubble apex due to the wall-normal (productive) and streamwise (destructive) Reynolds-stress energy-production terms. We also observe that the Reynolds heat-flux effects are similar but contribute to a smaller extent.