Stabilisation of second Mack mode in hypersonic boundary layers through spanwise non-uniform surface temperature distribution

The extreme heat fluxes characteristic of hypersonic flows significantly limit the flight envelope of hypersonic vehicles. The role of hydrodynamic instability and the onset of laminar-to-turbulent boundary layer transition is of notable importance. The effect of streaks on the suppression of planar (second Mack mode) instabilities has been previously investigated, but a potentially passive and non-intrusive control method has not been established yet. Recent work shows that streaks can be generated through a spanwise variation in surface temperature. This method exploits the aerothermodynamic characteristics of the flow, and therefore promises to be robust. This work uses direct numerical simulations to determine and quantify the effectiveness of this novel control method in the suppression of second Mack mode instability for a hypersonic boundary layer over a flat plate. The computational analyses cover a range of Mach numbers, 4.8–6, and wall temperature ratios representative of both wind tunnel testing and flight scenarios. Among the range of configurations investigated, the energy of the second Mack mode is reduced by up to approximately 60 % by the steady streaks. The streak wavelength parameter plays a significant role in the stabilisation benefits. For a Mach 6 configuration, for the most linearly amplified second Mack mode disturbance frequency, nearly optimum performance is achieved for a spanwise wavelength of approximately 8–10 times the local boundary layer thickness. These findings open new avenues for controlling hypersonic boundary layers and offer valuable guidance for future experimental campaigns aimed at validating this novel control strategy.