Boundary-layer over a swept wing is fully turbulent near the leading edge region owning to the crossflow instability. Swept cylinder model provides us a similar flow field where we could do some fundamental study on three-dimensional boundary-layer transition.
In the present paper, three-demensional (3-D) transition mechanism in swept cylinder boundary-layer is studied experimentally using an effective smoke visualization technique and a hot wire measurement. Transition Reynolds number for the crossflow instability is found to be comparable to the previous value. Smoke visualization showed detailed crossflow structure and high frequency secondary instability riding over crossflow vortices. Hot wire measurement by 3-D traverse system made possible to measure
U (
y) profile which is strongly modified into sinusoidal variation. Traveling disturbance (1KHz) is also detected in the transition region. It was detected that rapid growth in turbulence intensity begins not at the critical point for the stationary instability (primary instability), but at the critical point for unsteady instability. As a result, by drawing an schematic picture for the complicated transition process, some guidelines for future Laminar Flow Control study on an Airbus wing are provided.
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