Low disturbance wind tunnels, such as the Klebanoff–Saric Wind Tunnel (KSWT), offer an ideal environment to study boundary layer transition. In particular, the leading-edge receptivity of sound can be measured by creating acoustic disturbances that interact with the leading edge of a model to create Tollmien–Schlichting Waves. The magnitude and composition (sound, turbulence) of the background disturbances can affect these experiments, so the background disturbances should be minimized and documented thoroughly. The purpose of this thesis is to document the background acoustic signature of the KSWT and describe infrastructure upgrades for acoustic receptivity experiments. The measurements presented in this thesis will support future receptivity measurements in the KSWT. Microphone measurements revealed several important acoustic features in the tunnel. Cross correlations showed that two sources of low-frequency unsteadiness (the extended diffuser and corner two) create large pressure fluctuations that dominate the pressure spectrum. Directional separation of waves in the test section revealed that motor and blade passing noise travels primarily upstream into the test section. Finally, the acoustic treatments in the plenum are effective at removing sound from the tunnel. A wall of speakers was installed in the plenum to enable acoustic receptivity experiments. The speakers create both the primary downstream traveling waves and reflected upstream traveling waves in the test section. An adaptive closed loop control system was installed to reduce the amplitude of the reflected waves during acoustic forcing. Although the performance of the control system is frequency dependent, the technique was implemented successfully. The reduction in the diffuser reflection will increase the quality of future acoustic receptivity experiments in the KSWT.

This work is concerned with stability and receptivity analysis as well as studies on control of the laminar-turbulent transition in boundary-layer flows through direct numerical simulations. Various flow configurations are considered to address flow around straight and swept wings. The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of stability characteristics and different means of transition control of such flows which are of great interest in aeronautical applications. Acoustic receptivity of flow over a finite-thickness flat plate with elliptic leading edge is considered. The objective is to compute receptivity coefficient defined as the relative amplitude of acoustic disturbances and TS wave. The existing results in the literature for this flow case plot a scattered image and are inconclusive. We have approached this problem in both compressible and incompressible frameworks and used high-order numerical methods. Our results have shown that the generally-accepted level of acoustic receptivity coefficient for this flow case is one order of magnitude too high. The continuous increase of computational power has enabled us to perform global stability analysis of three-dimensional boundary layers. A swept flat plate of FSC type boundary layer with surface roughness is considered. The aim is to determine the critical roughness height for which the flow becomes turbulent. Global stability characteristics of this flow have been addressed and sensitivity of such analysis to domain size and numerical parameters have been discussed. The last flow configuration studied here is infinite swept-wing flow. Two numerical set ups are considered which conform to wind-tunnel experiments where passive control of crossflow instabilities is investigated. Robustness of distributed roughness elements in the presence of acoustic waves have been studied. Moreover, ring-type plasma actuators are employed as virtual roughness elements to delay laminar-turbulent transition. / <p>QC 20161124</p>

Direct numerical simulations of the receptivity and instability of boundary layers on flat and curved surfaces are herein reported. Various flow models are considered with the aim to capture aspects of flows over straight and swept wings such as wall curvature, pressure variations, leading-edge effects, streamline curvature and crossflow. The first model problem presented, the flow over a swept flat plate, features a crossflow inside the boundary layer. The layer is unstable to steady and traveling crossflow vortices which are nearly aligned with the free stream. Wall roughness and free-stream vortical modes efficiently excite these crossflow modes, and the associated receptivity mechanisms are linear in an environment of low-amplitude perturbations. Receptivity coefficients for roughness elements with various length scales and for free-stream vortical modes with different wavenumbers and frequencies are reported. Key to the receptivity to free-stream vorticity is the upstream excitation of streamwise streaks evolving into crossflow modes. This mechanism is also active in the presence of free-stream turbulence. The second flow model is that of a Görtler boundary layer. This flow type forms on surfaces with concave curvature, e.g. the lower side of a turbine blade. The dominant instability, driven by a vertically varying centrifugal force, appears as pairs of steady, streamwise counter-rotating vortical rolls and streamwise streaks. The Görtler boundary layer is in particular receptive to free-stream vortical modes with zero and low frequencies. The associated mechanism builds on the excitation of upstream disturbance streaks from which the Görtler modes emerge, similar to the mechanism in swept-plate flows. The receptivity to free-stream vorticity can both be linear and nonlinear. In the presence of free-stream turbulence, nonlinear receptivity is more likely to trigger steady Görtler vortices than linear receptivity unless the frequencies of the free-stream fluctuations are very low. The third set of simulations considers the boundary layer on a flat plate with an elliptic leading edge. This study aims to identify the effect of the leading edge on the boundary-layer receptivity to impinging free-stream vortical modes. Three types of modes with streamwise, vertical and spanwise vorticity are considered. The two former types trigger streamwise disturbance streaks while the latter type excites Tollmien-Schlichting wave packets in the shear layer. Simulations with two leading edges of different bluntness demonstrate that the leading-edge shape hardly influences the receptivity to streamwise vortices, whereas it significantly enhances the receptivity to vertical and spanwise vortices. It is shown that the receptivity mechanism to vertical free-stream vorticity involves vortex stretching and tilting - physical processes which are clearly enhanced by blunt leading edges. The last flow configuration studied models an infinite wing at 45 degrees sweep. This model is the least idealized with respect to applications in aerospace engineering. The set-up mimics the wind-tunnel experiments carried out by Saric and coworkers at the Arizona State University in the 1990s. The numerical method is verified by simulating the excitation of steady crossflow vortices through micron-sized roughness as realized in the experiments. Moreover, the receptivity to free-stream vortical disturbances is investigated and it is shown that the boundary layer is most receptive, if the free-stream modes are closely aligned with the most unstable crossflow mode / QC 20101025

Als Teilprojekt des Themenkreises III &amp;quot;Transitionskontrolle&amp;quot; des Schwerpunkt-Forschungsprogramms &amp;quot;Transition&amp;quot; der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, konzentriert sich diese Arbeit auf experimentelle Grundlagenuntersuchungen zum laminar-turbulenten Grenzsichtumschlag. Die Experimente wurden in der Grenzschicht einer ebenen, parallel angeblasenen, hydraulisch glatten Platte durchgeführt. Einen besonderen Schwerpunkt bildet die Abhängigkeit der Entwicklung der Instabilitäten, der sogenannten Tollmien-Schlichting Wellen, von deren Schräglaufwinkel zur Plattenvorderkante. Weiterhin wird der Einfluss zahlreicher Parameter wie z.B. des Schalldruckpegels und der Anregungsfrequenz diskutiert. Die Anregung der Tollmien-Schlichting Wellen erfolgte über periodisches Ausblasen / Ansaugen von Luft durch oberflächenbündige Schlitze quer zur Strömungsrichtung. Mit einem zeitlich hochauflösenden, restlichverstärkendem Kamerasystem konnten Aufnahmen der Strömungsvisualisierung erzielt werden, die unter anderem die zeitliche Entwicklung von Wirbelstrukturen (Lambda- Wirbel) zeigen. Zur Analyse der experimentell gewonnen Daten werden vergleichend Berechnungen nach der &amp;quot;Linearen Stabilitätstheorie&amp;quot; diskutiert. Einen weiteren Schwerpunkt bilden Untersuchungen zur aktiven Transitionskontrolle. Dabei wird der künstlich angeregten Tollmien Schlichting Welle eine gegenphasige Störwelle stromab überlagert. Es konnte nachgewiesen werden, das mit diesem Verfahren entsprechend des Superpositionsprinzips, die anfängliche Störamplitude der Tollmien Schlichting Welle deutlich reduziert wird. Es kommt zu einer fast vollständigen Störauslöschung. Untersuchungen im Nahfeld der Störeinkopplung, sowohl im Bereich der Anregnung als auch der gegenphasigen Dämpfungseinkopplung, zeigen deren Auswirkung auf die Entwicklung der Grenzschicht. / A sub-project of the working group III, &amp;quot;Transition Control&amp;quot; of the German Research Community's project &amp;quot;Transition&amp;quot;, this paper is focused on experimental fundamental investigations in the field of laminar-turbulent transition. The experiments were carried out in the boundary layer of a flat plat with tangential blowing. The main topic is the development of instabilities, or so-called Tollmien-Schlichting Waves (TSWs), based on the oblique angle between the TSWs and the leading edge. In addition the influence of other parameters, including the sound-pressure level and the frequency of the TSWs are discussed. The instabilities are initialised by suction and blowing through flush, oblique slots in the surface of a flat plate. Pictures of the flow visualisation, recorded with a high-speed camera system, show the time-resolved development of structures (Lamda-Vortices) within the boundary layer. In order to analyse the experimental data, a comparison is made between it and numerical calculations corresponding to the Linear Instability Theory. Another main topic is the investigation of the active transition control. According to the Super Position Principle a second wave with opposite phase is superimposed on the TSW. It can be demonstrated that this technique works with oblique waves too. The initialised instabilities can almost completely be cancelled out. Investigations very close to the initialising slots of the TSW with a high special resolution show their influence on the development of the boundary layer.