Numerical solution of the unsteady navier-stokes equations for the investigation of laminar boundary layer stability

Abstract

Stability and transition phenomena of laminar, two- dimensional, incompressible boundary layer flows are investigated by introducing forced time-dependent perturbations into the steady flow along a semi-infinite flat plate. The reaction of the flow is then directly determined by numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations in a specified rectangular domain. Only periodic disturbances of small amplitudes are considered to allow comparison of the calculations with both linear stability theory and experiments and thus to provide a thorough check of the numerical method (5 Refs.)