Harmonics of Tollmien — Schlichting waves in a compressible boundary layer

Abstract

The harmonics of Tollmien-Schlichting waves in a compressible boundary layer of a plate are computed with the aid of nonlinear parabolized stability equations. At the (downstream) growth of the second harmonic amplitude up to the values of the order of the basic harmonic amplitude, the amplification rate of the latter is shown to increase abruptly. A similar rapid deviation from the results of the linear theory characterizes the onset of the boundary-layer transition to turbulent state. Computations are carried out for the Mach numbers М = 0.01 and 2.