Towards transition modelling for supersonic laminar flow control based on spanwise periodic roughness elements.
Laminar flow control (LFC) is one of the key enabling technologies for quiet and efficient supersonic aircraft. Recent work at Arizona State University (ASU) has led to a novel concept for passive LFC, which employs distributed leading edge roughness to limit the growth of naturally dominant crossflow instabilities in a swept-wing boundary layer. Predicated on nonlinear modification of the mean boundary-layer flow via controlled receptivity, the ASU concept requires a holistic prediction approach that accounts for all major stages within transition in an integrated manner. As a first step in developing an engineering methodology for the design and optimization of roughness-based supersonic LFC, this paper reports on canonical findings related to receptivity plus linear and nonlinear development of stationary crossflow instabilities on a Mach 2.4, 73 degrees swept airfoil with a chord Reynolds number of 16.3 million.
Choudhari
Meelan
M
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681, USA. meelan.m.choudhari@nasa.gov
Chang
Chau-Lyan
CL
Jiang
Li
L