Verification and characterization of predominant instabilities of swept-wing boundary layers

Abstract

The problem of identification and verification of the most important linear stability mechanisms of initial stages of laminar-turbulent transition in three-dimensional (3D) swept-wing boundary layers is discussed based on experimental and theoretical investigations performed, in particular, for real swept airfoil sections. Detailed analysis of all main boundary-layer stability characteristics with respect to the cross-flow (CF) instability modes and 3D Tollmien-Schlichting (TS) instability modes is carried out based on experimental data, as well as on computations within the framework of linear stability theories and the Parabolized Stability Equation (PSE) approach. The possibility of a very good agreement between all main measured and calculated stability characteristics is shown. Role of surface curvature and base-flow non-parallelism is discussed.