Stabilization of a swept-wing boundary layer by distributed roughness elements

Abstract The stabilization of a swept-wing boundary layer by distributed surface roughness elements is studied by performing direct numerical simulations. The configuration resembles experiments studied by Saric and coworkers at Arizona State University, who employed this control method in order to delay transition. An array of cylindrical roughness elements are placed near the leading edge to excite subcritical cross-flow modes. Subcritical refers to the modes that are not critical with respect to transition. Their amplification to nonlinear amplitudes modifies the base flow such that the most unstable cross-flow mode and secondary instabilities are damped, resulting in downstream shift of the transition location. The experiments by Saric and coworkers were performed at low levels of free stream turbulence, and the boundary layer was therefore dominated by stationary cross-flow disturbances. Here, we consider a more complex disturbance field, which comprises both steady and unsteady instabilities of similar amplitudes. It is demonstrated that the control is robust with respect to complex disturbance fields as transition is shifted from 45 to 65 % chord.