How do surface imperfections affect airflow over a swept wing? This research explores the linear receptivity of a swept-wing boundary layer to surface vibrations and roughness, both experimentally and theoretically. Normal modes of cross-flow instability are excited by localized surface perturbations, and resulting disturbances are analyzed. Experiments, conducted under controlled disturbance conditions, excite wave trains consisting of cross-flow instability waves. The experimental data can be used for validation of other theoretical approaches to the problem.
This paper focuses on swept-wing boundary-layer and airflow. Because it was published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics, it meets the journal's scope of fluid mechanics topics.