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

The transition from a laminar to a turbulent flow strongly modifies the boundary layer properties.Understanding the mechanisms leading to transition is crucial to reliably predict aerodynamicperformances. For boundary layers subjected to high levels of external disturbances, the naturaltransition due to the amplification of the least stable mode is replaced by an early transition, calledBypass transition. This is the result of non-normal mode interactions that lead to a phenomenon oftransient growth of disturbances. These disturbances are known as Klebanoff modes and take theform of streamwise velocity streaks.This thesis aims at understanding this linear mechanism of transient growth and quantifying itsinfluence on the classical modal amplification of disturbances. This is done by computing theso-called optimal perturbations, i.e. the initial disturbances that undergo maximum amplificationin the boundary layer.These optimal perturbations are first determined for two-dimensional compressible boundary layersdeveloping over curved surfaces. In particular, we show that Klebanoff modes naturally evolvetowards Görtler vortices that occur over concave walls. Three-dimensional boundary layers arethen considered. In such configurations, transient growth provides an initial amplitude to crossflowvortices. Finally, applying the tools developed in this thesis to new flow cases such as swept wingsprovides further understanding of the phenomenon of transient growth for realistic geometries. / Le passage du régime laminaire au régime turbulent s’accompagne d’importantes modifications despropriétés physiques de la couche limite. La détermination précise de la transition est donc crucialedans de nombreux cas pratiques. Lorsque la couche limite se développe dans un environnementextérieur faiblement perturbé, la transition est gouvernée par l’amplification du mode propre le moinsstable. Lorsque l’intensité des perturbations extérieures augmente, des interactions multimodalesentraînent une amplification transitoire des perturbations. Ce phénomène peut conduire à unetransition prématurée, appelée transition Bypass. Les perturbations prennent alors la forme destries longitudinales de vitesse appelées modes de Klebanoff.L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier ce mécanisme linéaire de croissance transitoire et soninfluence sur l’amplification modale classique des perturbations. Cela passe par la déterminationdes perturbations les plus amplifiées au sein de la couche limite, appelées perturbations optimales.Ces perturbations optimales sont d’abord calculées pour des couches limites bidimensionnelles etcompressibles se développant sur des surfaces courbes. En particulier, on montre que les modes deKlebanoff évoluent vers les tourbillons de Görtler qui se forment sur des parois concaves. Le cas plusgénéral de couches limites tridimensionnelles est ensuite envisagé. Pour de telles configurations, lacroissance transitoire fournit une amplitude initiale aux instabilités transversales. Enfin, l’applicationdes outils développés dans cette thèse fournit de nouveaux résultats pour des cas d’écoulementsautour de géométries réalistes comme une aile en flèche.

This thesis considers the stability and transition of incompressible boundary layers. In particular, the Falkner–Skan–Cooke boundary layer subject to a cylindrical surface roughness, and the Blasius boundary layer with applied localized suction are investigated. These flows are of great importance within the aviation industry, feature complex transition scenarios, and are strongly three-dimensional in nature. Consequently, no assumptions regarding homogeneity in any of the spatial directions are possible, and the stability of the flow is governed by an extensive three-dimensional eigenvalue problem. The stability of these flows is addressed by high-order direct numerical simulations using the spectral element method, in combination with a Krylov subspace projection method. Such techniques target the long-term behavior of the flow and can provide lower limits beyond which transition is unavoidable. The origin of the instabilities, as well as the mechanisms leading to transition in the aforementioned cases are studied and the findings are reported. Additionally, a novel method for computing the optimal forcing of a dynamical system is developed. This type of analysis provides valuable information about the frequencies and structures that cause the largest energy amplification in the system. The method is based on the inverse power method, and is discussed in the context of the one-dimensional Ginzburg–Landau equation and a two-dimensional flow case governed by the Navier–Stokes equations. / <p>QC 20151015</p>

This thesis considers the hydrodynamic instability and optimal forcing of a number of incompressible flow cases. In the first part, the instabilities of three problems that are of great interest in energy and aerospace applications are studied, namely a Blasius boundary layer subject to localized wall-suction, a Falkner–Skan–Cooke boundary layer with a localized surface roughness, and a pair of helical vortices. The two boundary layer flows are studied through spectral element simulations and eigenvalue computations, which enable their long-term behavior as well as the mechanisms causing transition to be determined. The emergence of transition in these cases is found to originate from a linear flow instability, but whereas the onset of this instability in the Blasius flow can be associated with a localized region in the vicinity of the suction orifice, the instability in the Falkner–Skan–Cooke flow involves the entire flow field. Due to this difference, the results of the eigenvalue analysis in the former case are found to be robust with respect to numerical parameters and domain size, whereas the results in the latter case exhibit an extreme sensitivity that prevents domain independent critical parameters from being determined. The instability of the two helices is primarily addressed through experiments and analytic theory. It is shown that the well known pairing instability of neighboring vortex filaments is responsible for transition, and careful measurements enable growth rates of the instabilities to be obtained that are in close agreement with theoretical predictions. Using the experimental baseflow data, a successful attempt is subsequently also made to reproduce this experiment numerically. In the second part of the thesis, a novel method for computing the optimal forcing of a dynamical system is developed. The method is based on an application of the inverse power method preconditioned by the Laplace preconditioner to the direct and adjoint resolvent operators. The method is analyzed for the Ginzburg–Landau equation and afterwards the Navier–Stokes equations, where it is implemented in the spectral element method and validated on the two-dimensional lid-driven cavity flow and the flow around a cylinder. / <p>QC 20171124</p>