Direct Numerical Simulation of Transition in a Swept-Wing Boundary Layer

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is performed to examine laminar to turbulent transition due to high-frequency secondary instability of stationary crossflow vortices in a subsonic swept-wing boundary layer for a realistic natural-laminar-flow airfoil configuration. The secondary instability is introduced via inflow forcing derived from a two-dimensional, partial-differential-equation based eigenvalue computation; and the mode selected for forcing corresponds to the most amplified secondary instability mode which, in this case, derives a majority of its growth from energy production mechanisms associated with the wall-normal shear of the stationary basic state. Both the growth of the secondary instability wave and the resulting onset of laminar-turbulent transition are captured within the DNS computations. The growth of the secondary instability wave in the DNS solution compares well with linear secondary instability theory when the amplitude is small; the linear growth is followed by a region of reduced growth resulting from nonlinear effects before an explosive onset of laminar breakdown to turbulence. The peak fluctuations are concentrated near the boundary layer edge during the initial stage of transition, but rapidly propagates towards the surface during the process of laminar breakdown. Both time-averaged statistics and flow visualization based on the DNS reveal a sawtooth transition pattern that is analogous to previously documented surface flow visualizations of transition due to stationary crossflow instability. The memory of the stationary crossflow vortex is found to persist through the transition zone and well beyond the location of the maximum skin friction.