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An improved expansion of the parabolized stability equation (iEPSE) method is proposed for the accurate linear instability prediction in boundary layers. It is a local eigenvalue problem, and the streamwise wavenumber α and its streamwise gradient dα/dx are unknown variables. This eigenvalue problem is solved for the eigenvalue dα/dx with an initial α, and the correction of α is performed with the conservation relation used in the PSE. The iEPSE is validated in several compressible and incompressible boundary layers. The computational results show that the prediction accuracy of the iEPSE is significantly higher than that of the ESPE, and it is in excellent agreement with the PSE which is regarded as the baseline for comparison. In addition, the unphysical multiple eigenmode problem in the EPSE is solved by using the iEPSE. As a local non-parallel stability analysis tool, the iEPSE has great potential application in the eN transition prediction in general three-dimensional boundary layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypersonic boundary-layer receptivity to slow acoustic waves is investigated for the Mach 6 flow over a 5-degree half-angle blunt cone with the nose radius of 5.08 mm. The plane acoustic wave interacts with the bow shock, and generates all types of disturbances behind the shock, which may take various routes to generate the boundary-layer unstable mode. In this paper, two routes of receptivity are investigated in detail. One is through the disturbance in the entropy layer. The other is through the slow acoustic wave transmitted downstream the bow shock, which can excite the boundary-layer mode due to the synchronization mechanism. The results show that, for a low frequency slow acoustic wave, the latter route plays a leading role. The entropy-layer instability wave is able to excite the first mode near the neutral point, but its receptivity efficiency is much lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear interactions of the two-dimensional (2D) second mode with oblique modes are studied numerically in a Mach 6.0 flat-plate boundary layer, focusing on its selective enhancement effect on amplification of different oblique waves. Evolution of oblique modes with various frequencies and spanwise wavenumbers in the presence of 2D second mode is simulated successively, using a modified parabolized stability equation (PSE) method, which is able to simulate interaction of two modes with different frequencies efficiently. Numerical results show that oblique modes in a broad band of frequencies and spanwise wavenumbers can be enhanced by the finite amplitude 2D second mode instability wave. The enhancement effect is accomplished by interaction of the 2D second mode, the oblique mode, and a forced mode with difference frequency. Two types of oblique modes are found to be more amplified, i.e., oblique modes with frequency close to that of the 2D second mode and low-frequency first mode oblique waves. Each of them may correspond to one type of transition routes found in transition experiments. The spanwise wavenumber of the oblique wave preferred by the nonlinear interaction is also determined by numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nth-order expansion of the parabolized stability equation (EPSE n) is obtained from the Taylor expansion of the linear parabolized stability equation (LPSE) in the streamwise direction. The EPSE together with the homogeneous boundary conditions forms a local eigenvalue problem, in which the streamwise variations of the mean flow and the disturbance shape function are considered. The first-order EPSE (EPSE1) and the second-order EPSE (EPSE2) are used to study the crossflow instability in the swept NLF(2)-0415 wing boundary layer. The non-parallelism degree of the boundary layer is strong. Compared with the growth rates predicted by the linear stability theory (LST), the results given by the EPSE1 and EPSE2 agree well with those given by the LPSE. In particular, the results given by the EPSE2 are almost the same as those given by the LPSE. The prediction of the EPSE1 is more accurate than the prediction of the LST, and is more efficient than the predictions of the EPSE2 and LPSE. Therefore, the EPSE1 is an efficient e prediction tool for the crossflow instability in swept-wing boundary-layer flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to extend the e method to general three-dimensional boundary layers, the conservation law of the imaginary parts for the wave parameters with a fixed wave vector is deduced. The compatibility relationship (CR) and the general theory of ray tracing (RT), which have been extensively used in conservative systems, are applied to a general three-dimensional boundary layer belonging to non-conservative systems. Two kinds of e methods, i.e., the eN-CR method and the eN-RT method, are established. Both the two kinds of methods can be used to predict the evolutions of the spanwise wavenumber and the amplitude of the disturbances in general three-dimensional boundary layers. The reliability of the proposed methods is verified and validated by performing a direct numerical simulation (DNS) in a hypersonic general three-dimensional boundary layer over an aircraft model. The results are also compared with those obtained by other e methods, indicating that the proposed methods have great potential applications in improving the transition prediction accuracy in general three-dimensional boundary layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human thermal plume is quite important to the study of airflow organization in the indoor environment, especially in the micro-environment research such as personalized ventilation, infectious disease transmission through air, etc. In order to investigate the unsteady fluctuation of the thermal plume around human body, a series of transient numerical simulations are conducted in this study. Numerical simulation based on 9.7 million grids and 0.02 s time step is performed to obtain the detail quantitative data of flow field. The obvious fluctuation and separation are captured in the upper flow region of human body based on the high resolution grids. The maximum time-averaged velocity of the thermal plume is found to be 0.25 m/s while the maximum fluctuate velocity is about 0.07 m/s. The further analysis of frequency spectrum shows that the thermal plume around the body is mainly dominated by the low frequency fluctuation which is lower than 1 Hz and the principal frequency is around 0.1 Hz. In order to overcome the drawback of the high computation cost for application of the engineering simulation, a new numerical simulation method combining a modified k- ε turbulence model and coarse grids is presented. This modified k- ε model can reduce the calculation error of Reynolds stress in the flow region of natural convection through redefining the turbulence viscosity coefficient segmentally and avoid a high numerical viscosity appeared due to the central difference scheme. It can reasonably predict the general fluctuation velocity and the frequency distribution during simulation process in coarse grids and show a huge potential to be applied to the engineering application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The instability of the Mack mode is destabilized by wall-cooling in a high speed boundary layer. The aim of this paper is to study the mechanism of the wall-cooling effect on the Mack mode instability by numerical methods. It is shown that the wall-cooling can destabilize the Mack mode instability, similar to the previous conclusions with the exception that the Mack mode instability can be stabilized by wall-cooling if the wall temperature is extremely low. The reversed wall temperature is related to a freestream condition. If the Mach number increases to a large enough value, e.g., about 7, the reversed wall temperature will tend to be zero. It seems that the Mack mode instability is determined by the region between the boundary layer edge and the critical layer. When the wall temperature decreases, this region becomes wider, and the boundary layer becomes more unstable. Additionally, a relative supersonic unstable mode can be observed when the velocity of the critical layer is less than 1 − 1/ Ma or is cancelled by the wall-cooling effect. These results provide a deeper understanding on the wall-cooling effect in high speed boundary layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study on the global instability of a Stokes layer, which is a typical unsteady flow, is usually a paradigm for understanding the instability and transition of unsteady flows. Previous studies suggest that the neutral curve of the global instability obtained by the Floquet theory is only mapped out in a limited range of wave numbers (0.2 ≤ α ≤ 0.5). In this paper, the global instability is investigated with numerical simulations for all wave numbers. It is revealed that the peak of the disturbances displays irregularity rather than the periodic evolution while the wave number is beyond the above range. A 'neutral point' is redefined, and a neutral curve of the global instability is presented for the whole wave numbers with this new definition. This work provides a deeper understanding of the global instability of unsteady flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The e-N method is widely used in transition prediction. The amplitude growth rate used in the e-N method is usually provided by the linear stability theory (LST) based on the local parallel hypothesis. Considering the non-parallelism effect, the parabolized stability equation (PSE) method lacks local characteristic of stability analysis. In this paper, a local stability analysis method considering non-parallelism is proposed, termed as EPSE since it may be considered as an expansion of the PSE method. The EPSE considers variation of the shape function in the streamwise direction. Its local characteristic is convenient for stability analysis. This paper uses the EPSE in a strong non-parallel flow and mode exchange problem. The results agree well with the PSE and the direct numerical simulation (DNS). In addition, it is found that the growth rate is related to the normalized method in the non-parallel flow. Different results can be obtained using different normalized methods. Therefore, the normalized method must be consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the complexity of compressible flows, nonlinear hydrodynamic stability theories in supersonic boundary layers are not sufficient. In order to reveal the nonlinear interaction mechanisms of the rapidly amplified 3-D disturbances in supersonic boundary layers at high Mach numbers, the nonlinear evolutions of different disturbances in flat-plate boundary layers at Mach number 4.5, 6 and 8 are analyzed by numerical simulations. It can be concluded that the 3-D disturbances are amplified rapidly when the amplitude of the 2-D disturbance reaches a certain level. The most rapidly amplified 3-D disturbances are Klebanoff type (K-type) disturbances which have the same frequency as the 2-D disturbance. Among these K-type 3-D disturbances, the disturbances located at the junction of upper branch and lower branch of the neutral curve are amplified higher. Through analyzing the relationship between the amplification rate and the spanwise wavenumber of the 3-D disturbances at different evolution stages, the mechanism of the spanwise wavenumber selectivity of K-type 3-D disturbances in the presence of a finite amplitude 2-D disturbance is explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonlinear evolution of a finite-amplitude disturbance in a 3-D supersonic boundary layer over a cone was investigated recently by Liu et al. using direct numerical simulation (DNS). It was found that certain small-scale 3-D disturbances amplified rapidly. These disturbances exhibit the characteristics of second modes, and the most amplified components have a well-defined spanwise wavelength, indicating a clear selectivity of the amplification. In the case of a cone, the three-dimensionality of the base flow and the disturbances themselves may be responsible for the rapid amplification. In order to ascertain which of these two effects are essential, in this study we carried out DNS of the nonlinear evolution of a spanwise localized disturbance (wavepacket) in a flat-plate boundary layer. A similar amplification of small-scale disturbances was observed, suggesting that the direct reason for the rapid amplification is the three-dimensionality of the disturbances rather than the three-dimensional nature of the base flow, even though the latter does alter the spanwise distribution of the disturbance. The rapid growth of 3-D waves may be attributed to the secondary instability mechanism. Further simulations were performed for a wavepacket of first modes in a supersonic boundary layer and of Tollmien-Schlichting (T-S) waves in an incompressible boundary layer. The results show that the amplifying components are in the band centered at zero spanwise wavenumber rather than at a finite spanwise wavenumber. It is therefore concluded that the rapid growth of 3-D disturbances in a band centered at a preferred large spanwise wavenumber is the main characteristic of nonlinear evolution of second mode disturbances in supersonic boundary layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through temporal mode direct numerical simulation, flow field database of a fully developed turbulent boundary layer on a flat plate with Mach number 4.5 and Reynolds number Re θ =1094 has been obtained. Commonly used detection methods in experiments are applied to detecting coherent structures in the flow field, and it is found that coherent structures do exist in the wall region of a supersonic turbulent boundary layer. The detected results show that a low-speed streak is detected by using the Mu-level method, the rising parts of this streak are detected by using the second quadrant method, and the crossing regions from a low-speed streak to the high-speed one are detected by using the VITA method respectively. Notwithstanding that different regions are detected by different methods, they are all accompanied by quasi-stream-wise vortex structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal mode direct numerical simulation (DNS) has been done for a supersonic turbulent boundary layer on a flat plate with Mach number 4.5. It was found that the mean flow profile, the normal-wise distribution of turbulent Mach number and the root mean square (RMS) of the fluctuations of various variables, as well as the Reynolds stresses, bore similarity in nature, when the turbulence reached a fully developed state. But the compressibility effect was strong and must be considered. The strong Reynolds analogy (SRA) and the Morkovin hypothesis were no longer valid. From the end of transition to the fully developed state of turbulence, it was in the transient period, for which the similarity did not hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the theoretical model for a single coherent structure in the wall region of a turbulent boundary layer, we studied the interaction of two coherent structures by direct numerical simulation in order to explain the mechanism for the formation of low-speed streaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical simulations have been done for a compressible mixing layer, in which the inflow speed on the low speed side was made to have periodic undulations, so as to see if this method could enhance the mixing effect of the layer. Systematic computations for a 2-D compressible mixing layer with Mach number M e = 0.6 have been done, and the results showed that the proposed method was indeed effective in enhancing the mixing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]