Predicting Boundary-Layer Transition over Backward-Facing Steps via Linear Stability Analysis

What is it about?

To help alleviate the environmental impact of aviation, there needs to be significant reductions in the fuel burn rate of future aircraft. Our work is the first to demonstrate physics-based transition correlations that agree with a high-quality experiment on step excrescences across a broad range of the parameter space. The reduced scatter in transition predictions, and hence, the more accurate specification of manufacturing tolerances based on those predictions should contribute to a successful and cost-effective implementation of laminar flow technology on the greener aircraft of tomorrow.

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