Görtler vortices develop in boundary layer flows over concave surfaces due to the imbalance between centrifugal forces and the wall-normal pressure gradient. These vortices can be efficient precursors to transition in boundary layers exposed to free-stream disturbance or surface non-uniformities, because they can alter the mean flow causing the laminar flow to breakdown into turbulence. In this thesis, a control technique aimed at reducing the energy associated with Görtler vortices that develop in supersonic boundary layers is introduced and tested. The control algorithm is based on distributed blowing and suction, with sensors placed either in the flow or at the wall. The result show that there is a dependence between the efficiency of the control algorithm and the spanwise separation of the vortices, that is the energy reduction is more significant for larger spanwise separations. The efficiency of the control algorithm seems to be insensitive to the variation of the Mach number.

Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) are performed to investigate laminar-turbulent transition in a boundary layer on a sharp cone at Mach 6. The main objective of this dissertation research is to explore which nonlinear breakdown mechanisms may be dominant in a broad--band "natural" disturbance environment and then use this knowledge to perform controlled transition simulations to investigate these mechanisms in great detail. Towards this end, a "natural" transition scenario was modeled and investigated by generating wave packet disturbances. The evolution of a three-dimensional wave packet in a boundary layer has typically been used as an idealized model for "natural" transition to turbulence, since it represents the impulse response of the boundary layer and, thus, includes the interactions between all frequencies and wave numbers. These wave packet simulations provided strong evidence for a possible presence of fundamental and subharmonic resonance mechanisms in the nonlinear transition regime. However, the fundamental resonance was much stronger than the subharmonic. In addition to these two resonance mechanisms, the wave packet simulations also indicated the possible presence of oblique breakdown mechanism. To gain more insight into the nonlinear mechanisms, controlled transition simulations were performed of these mechanisms. Several small and medium scale simulations were performed to scan the parameter space for fundamental and subharmonic resonance. These simulations confirmed the findings of the wave packet simulations, namely that, fundamental resonance is much stronger compared to the subharmonic resonance. Subsequently a set of highly resolved fundamental and oblique breakdown simulations were performed. In these DNS, remarkable streamwise arranged "hot'' streaks were observed for both fundamental and oblique breakdown. The streaks were a consequence of the large amplitude steady longitudinal vortex modes in the nonlinear régime. These simulations demonstrated that both second--mode fundamental breakdown and oblique breakdown may indeed be viable paths to complete breakdown to turbulence in hypersonic boundary layers at Mach 6.