Downstream Development of a Laminar Spot

Abstract

It was well-known that a disturbance, introduced artificially into a supercritical laminar boundary layer along a flat plate, is still laminar in the initial stage of its downstream development. Thus, we named it a "laminar spot" because it resembles a turbulent spot though its velocity perturbation remains laminar. From velocity measurements using a rake-type 16-channel hot-wire probe, we found that in the first stage of the downstream development of a laminar spot, its maximum width was at 0.2δ (what is called the critical layer) and one-half of its lateral growth angle was about 5°, which is almost one-half that of a turbulent spot. We call this region a "laminar spot region". In the present study, we measured in detail the velocity field of a laminar spot using a new hot-wire probe in the laminar spot region. The results showed that a laminar spot consists of some hairpin vortices and some induced U-shaped vortices under the hairpin vortices. Because of the interaction of the velocities induced by the respective vortex legs, the legs of the U-shaped vortices were located at the outermost part of the spot. Moreover, the new vortex legs extended spanwise at about 4° as the spot traveled downstream. Consequently, we concluded that the laminar spot grew spanwise in accordance with the span of these vortex legs.

Keywords

• boundary layer transition
• laminar spot
• boundary layer instability