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On the Interaction of Freestream Turbulence and Attachment-Line Boundary Layer

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IUTAM Laminar-Turbulent Transition

Part of the book series: IUTAM Bookseries ((IUTAMBOOK,volume 38))

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Abstract

One of the possible forcing mechanisms for inducing transition from laminar to turbulent flow is freestream turbulence. Among the different transition mechanisms, freestream turbulence influences the cross-flow instability which occurs on swept wings. In order to understand better the physical interaction between freestream turbulence and boundary layer, this work analyses how the turbulence is distorted approaching a leading edge and whether it is amplified approaching a swept leading edge. The paper contains a brief literature review of both the two-dimensional stagnation point and three-dimensional attachment-line flows. This reveals that freestream turbulence amplification has been investigated for two-dimensional leading edge flows, but there is a lack of research on the swept leading edge. In addition, the paper presents some experimental results on a circular cylinder at various sweep angles. The results show that the phenomenon observed at the two-dimensional stagnation point also occurs at a swept attachment-line, although some differences are identified.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under grant ref. EP L024888 1 UK National Wind Tunnel Facility, co-ordinated by Imperial College, and the support of InnovateUK under grant ref. 113024, Enhanced Fidelity Transonic Wing, led by Airbus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. City, University of London, Northampton Square, London, EC1V0HB, UK

    Isabella Fumarola & Michael Gaster

  2. School of Mathematics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Chris J. Atkin

Authors
  1. Isabella Fumarola
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  2. Michael Gaster
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  3. Chris J. Atkin
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Correspondence to Isabella Fumarola .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Imperial College London, London, UK

    Spencer Sherwin

  2. Imperial College London, London, UK

    Peter Schmid

  3. Imperial College London, London, UK

    Xuesong Wu

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Fumarola, I., Gaster, M., Atkin, C.J. (2022). On the Interaction of Freestream Turbulence and Attachment-Line Boundary Layer. In: Sherwin, S., Schmid, P., Wu, X. (eds) IUTAM Laminar-Turbulent Transition. IUTAM Bookseries, vol 38. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67902-6_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67902-6_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-67901-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-67902-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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