Triglobal infinite-wing shock-buffet study

This article uses triglobal stability analysis to address the question of shock-buffet unsteadiness, and associated modal dominance, on infinite wings at high Reynolds number, expanding upon recent biglobal work, aspiring to elucidate the flow phenomenon's origin and characteristics. Infinite wings are modelled by extruding an aerofoil to finite aspect ratios and imposing a periodic boundary condition without assumptions on spanwise homogeneity. Two distinct steady base flows, spanwise uniform and non-uniform, are analysed herein on straight and swept wings. Stability analysis of straight-wing uniform flow identifies both the oscillatory aerofoil mode, linked to the chordwise shock motion synchronised with a pulsation of its downstream shear layer, and several monotone (non-oscillatory), spatially periodic shock-distortion modes. Those monotone modes become outboard travelling on the swept wing with their respective frequencies and phase speeds correlated with the sweep angle. In the limiting case of very small wavenumbers approaching zero, the effect of sweep creates branches of outboard and inboard travelling modes. Overall, triglobal results for such quasi-three-dimensional base flows agree with previous biglobal studies. On the contrary, cellular patterns form in proper three-dimensional base flow on straight wings, and we present the first triglobal study of such an equilibrium solution to the governing equations. Spanwise-irregular modes are found to be sensitive to the chosen aspect ratio. Nonlinear time-marching simulations reveal the flow evolution and distinct events to confirm the insights gained through dominant modes from routine triglobal stability analysis.