A Unified View of the Origin and Morphology of the Turbulent Boundary Layer Structure

On the basis of instability and vortex interactions in an idealized physical model, an attempt is made to deduce in a self-contained and rational way the structure of the turbulent boundary layer. It is shown that the model provides a rough but self-consistent description of several known aspects of the structure.The key concept is that of a ‘critical layer’ in the flow. It is believed that this description will shed some light on possible control schemes for the turbulent boundary layer.