1 On the dynamics in a boundary layer

This paper presents direct comparisons of related visualization and hot film measurement studies of the nonlinear, late stages of transition in a boundary layer. The preceding nonlinear stages of the transition process are well documented in previous studies. Both the visualizations and measurements were performed with controlled disturbance conditions excited by an instability wave in a flat-plate boundary layer. The CS-solitons, the Λ-vortex, the secondary closed vortex and the chain of ring vortices are postulated to be the basic flow structures of the transitional boundary layer. New mechanisms for their formation are also given. Despite somewhat different initial disturbance conditions used in these and previous experiments, the flow structures are found to be practically the same. Our experimental results show new dynamic processes and new flow structures, i.e., the secondary closed vortex, in a transitional boundary layer