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.

The effect of freestream turbulence on generation of crossflow disturbances over swept wings is investigated through direct numerical simulations.  The set up follows  the  experiments  performed  by Downs  et  al.  in their  TAMU  experi- ment.  In this experiment the authors use ASU(67)-0315 wing geometry which promotes  growth  of crossflow  disturbances.   Distributed  roughness  elements are locally placed near the leading edge with a span-wise wavenumber, to ex- cite the corresponding crossflow vortices.  The response of boundary layer to external disturbances such as roughness heights, span-wise wavenumbers, Rey- nolds numbers and freestream turbulence characteristics are studied.  It must be noted that the experiments were conducted at a very low level of freestream turbulence  intensity  (T u).   In this  study,  we fully  reproduce the  freestream isotropic homogenous turbulence through a DNS code using detailed freestream spectrum data provided by the experiment. The generated freestream fields are then applied as the inflow boundary condition for direct numerical simulation of the wing. The geometrical set up is the same as the experiment along with application of distributed roughness elements near the leading edge to precipi- tate stationary crossflow disturbances.  The effects of the generated freestream turbulence are then studied on the initial amplitudes and growth of the bound- ary layer perturbations.  It appears that the freestream turbulence damps out the dominant stationary crossflow vortices.

Localised optimal initial perturbations are studied to gain an understanding of the global stability properties of streamwise corner-flow. A self-similar and a modified base-flow are considered. The latter mimics a characteristic deviation from the self-similar solution, commonly observed in experiment. Poweriterations in terms of subsequent direct and adjoint linearised Navier-Stokes solution sweeps are employed to converge optimal solutions for two optimisation times. The optimal response manifests as a wave packet that initially gains energy through the Orr mechanism and continues growing exponentially thereafter. The study at hand represents the first global stability analysis of streamwise corner-flow and confirms key observations made in theoretical and/or experimental work on the subject. Namely, the presence of an inviscid instability mechanism in the near-corner region and a destabilising effect of the characteristic mean-flow deformation found in experiment.