Effect of curvature on stationary crossflow instability of a three-dimensional boundary layer

An incompressible three-dimensional laminar boundary-layer flow over a swept wing is used as a model to study both the wall-curvature and streamline-curvature effects on the stationary crossflow instability. The basic state is obtained by solving the full Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations numerically. The linear disturbance equations are cast on a fixed, body-intrinsic, curvilinear coordinate system. Those nonparallel terms which contribute mainly to the streamline-curvature effect are retained in the formulation of the disturbance equations and approximated by their local finite difference values. The resulting eigenvalue problem is solved by a Chebyshev collocation method. The present results indicate that the convex wall curvature has a stabilizing effect, whereas the streamline curvature has a destabilizing effect. A validation of these effects with an N-S solution for the linear disturbance flow is provided.