Three-dimensional receptivity of boundary layers

Abstract The paper presents a review of results of some recent (mainly experimental) studies devoted to a quantitative investigation of the problem of receptivity of the 2D and 3D boundary layers with respect to various 3D (in general) external perturbations. The paper concentrates on the mechanisms of excitation and development of stationary and travelling instability modes in a 3D boundary layer on a swept wing, as well as in 2D boundary layers including the Blasius flow and a self-similar boundary layer with an adverse pressure gradient. In particular, the following problems of the boundary-layer receptivity are discussed: (i) receptivity to localized 3D surface roughness, (ii) receptivity to localized 3D surface vibrations, (iii) acoustic receptivity in presence of 3D surface roughness, and (iv) acoustic receptivity in the presence of 3D surface vibrations. All experiments described in the paper were conducted using controlled disturbance conditions with the help of simulation of the stationary and non-stationary perturbations by means of several disturbance generators. This approach gives us the possibility to obtain quantitative results which are independent of any uncontrolled background perturbations of the flow and the experimental model. In contrast to the data obtained at “natural” environmental conditions these results can be directly compared with calculations without any significant assumptions about the physical nature of the disturbances under investigation. The complex (amplitude and phase) coefficients of the boundary-layer receptivity to external perturbations, obtained as functions of the disturbance frequency and the spanwise wavenumber (or the wave propagation angle), represent the main results of the experiments described. These results can be used for the evaluation of the initial amplitudes and phases of the instability modes generated by various external perturbations, as well as for quantitative verification of linear receptivity theories. Several examples of the comparison of experimental results with calculations are also presented in this paper. A brief analysis of the state-of-art in the field is performed and some general properties of different receptivity mechanisms are discussed.