Experimental study of the K-regime of breakdown in straight and swept wing boundary layers

Other conference contribution, 2000

Experiments on the stability of three-dimensional boundary layers on the straight and swept airfoils have been conducted. Detailed measurements of the streamwise velocity field in (Y, Z) planes, as well as the 3D frequency-wavenumber spectra have revealed linear and non-linear evolutions of the disturbances generated by an external acoustic field in the airfoil boundary layers. The Tollmien-Schlichting waves, excited by the sound, were dominant in both configurations, and the disturbance flow field was found to remain highly deterministic and periodic both in time and space until the latest stages of the transition. To control a spanwise variation of the disturbance flow field roughness elements were placed on the surface and equidistantly aligned along the airfoil leading edge. The K-type transition was identified with the aligned order of so-called Lambda-patterns at non-linear stage of the transition. The experiment was conducted in a closed-circuit wind-tunnel at the department of Thermo and Fluid Dynamics, Calmers. This work was supported by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA).