On recent developments in marginal separation theory

Thin aerofoils are prone to localized flow separation at their leading edge if subjected to moderate angles of attack α. Although ‘laminar separation bubbles’ at first do not significantly alter the aerofoil performance, they tend to ‘burst’ if α is increased further or if perturbations acting upon the flow reach a certain intensity. This then either leads to global flow separation (stall) or triggers the laminar–turbulent transition process within the boundary layer flow. This paper addresses the asymptotic analysis of the early stages of the latter phenomenon in the limit as the characteristic Reynolds number [Image: see text], commonly referred to as marginal separation theory. A new approach based on the adjoint operator method is presented that enables the fundamental similarity laws of marginal separation theory to be derived and the analysis to be extended to higher order. Special emphasis is placed on the breakdown of the flow description, i.e. the formation of finite-time singularities (a manifestation of the bursting process), and on its resolution being based on asymptotic arguments. The passage to the subsequent triple-deck stage is described in detail, which is a prerequisite for carrying out a future numerical treatment of this stage in a proper way. Moreover, a composite asymptotic model is developed in order for the inherent ill-posedness of the Cauchy problems associated with the current flow description to be resolved.