FLOW OVER A LEADING-EDGE WITH DISTRIBUTED ROUGHNESS

An analysis of the flow over a leading edge with distributed roughness is presented. The analysis is focused on a small neighbourhood of the stagnation line. The roughness is assumed to have a small amplitude and to be symmetric with respect to the stagnation line. Results show that roughness acts as a source of streamwise vorticity. The existence of a universal form of the flow field for long-wavelength roughness is demonstrated. It is shown that surface stresses tend to eliminate roughness if erosion or wall flexibility are admitted. The heat flow tends to concentrate at the tips of the roughness and this may lead to the generation of large thermal stresses along the surface of the leading edge. © 1990, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.