The crossflow instability of a three-dimensional boundary layer is a main factor affecting the transition around the swept-wing.The three-dimensional boundary layer flow affected by the saturated crossflow vortex is very sensitive to the high frequency disturbances,which foreshadows that the swept wing flow transition will happen.The primary instability of the compressible flow over a swept wing is investigated with nonlinear parabolized stability equations (NPSE).The Floquet theory is then applied to the analysis of the influence of localized steady suction on the secondary instability of crossflow vortex.The results show that suction can significantly suppress the growth of the crossflow mode as well as the secondary instability modes.
The crossflow instability of a three-dimensional (3-D) boundary layer is an important factor which affects the transition over a swept-wing.In this report,the primary instability of the incompressible flow over a swept wing is investigated by solving nonlinear parabolized stability equations (NPSE).The Floquet theory is applied to study the dependence of the secondary and high-frequency instabilities on curvature,Reynolds number and angle of swept (AOS).The computational results show that the curvature in the present case has no significant effect on the secondary instabilities.It is generally believed that the secondary instability growth rate increases with the magnitude of the nonlinear mode of crossflow vortex.But,at a certain state,when the Reynolds number is 3.2 million,we find that the secondary instability growth rate becomes smaller even when the magnitude of the nonlinear mode of the crossflow vortex is larger.The effect of the angle of swept at 35,45 and 55 degrees,respectively,is also studied in the framework of the secondary linear stability theory.Larger angles of swept tend to decrease the spanwise spacing of the crossflow vortices,which correspondingly helps the stimulation of 'z' mode.
