On the influence of two-dimensional hump roughness on laminar-turbulent transition

The presence of large surface irregularities such as humps, where the height is similar to the local boundary-layer (BL) displacement thickness, introduces regions of localized strong streamwise gradients in the base flow quantities. These large gradients can significantly modify the spatial development of incoming disturbances that lead to laminar–turbulent transition in wall-bounded flows [e.g., Tollmien–Schlichting (TS) waves]. Techniques such as Parabolized Stability Equations (PSE) are not suited for BL instability analysis in such regions: their formulation assumes that streamwise variations of base flow and disturbance quantities are small, allowing a marching procedure for their resolution. On the other hand, the Adaptive Harmonic Linearized Navier–Stokes (AHLNS) equations can handle these large streamwise gradients by using a fully elliptic system of equations, similar to Linearized Navier–Stokes (LNS), Harmonic LNS (HLNS), or Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS). Moreover, in AHLNS (as in PSE), a wave-like character of the instabilities is assumed, leading to a significant reduction in the number of streamwise grid points required compared with LNS, HLNS, or DNS computations. In the present study, an efficient combination of PSE and AHLNS is used to investigate the effect of height, length, and shape of a single hump placed on a flat plate in a two-dimensional flow field at Ma_∞ = 0.5 without pressure gradient. The effect of this hump on the spatial evolution of TS waves, in terms of N-factors, is presented. An expected laminar–turbulent transition onset, via the e^N methodology, is also described. It is shown that the shape of the surface irregularity, together with the height and length, plays an important role for the location of laminar–turbulent transition onset in convectively unstable flows.