Abstract
Experiments on the receptivity of two-dimensional boundary layers to acoustic disturbances from two-dimensional roughness strips were performed in a low-turbulence wind tunnel on a at plate model. The freestream was subjected to a plane acoustic wave so that a Stokes Layer (SL) was created on the plate, thus generating a Tollmien-Schlichting (T-S) wave through the receptivity process. An improved technique to measure the T-S component is described based on a retracting two-dimensional roughness, which allowed for phase-locked measurements at the acoustic wave frequency to be made. This improved technique enables both protuberances and cavities to be explored in the range 30m < jhj < 750m (equivalent to 0:025 < jhj=B < 0:630 in relative roughness height to the local unperturbed Blasius boundary layer displacement thickness). These depths are designed to cover both the predicted linear and non-linear response of the T-S excitation. Experimentally, cavities had not previously been explored. Results show that a linear regime is identifiable for both positive and negative roughness heights up to 150 m (jhj=B 0:126). The departure from the linear behaviour is, however, dependent on the geometry of the surface imperfection. For cavities of signicant depth, the non-linear behaviour is found to be milder than in the case of protuberances - this is attributed to the flow physics in the near field of the surface features. Nonetheless, results for positive heights agree well with previous theoretical work which predicted a linear disturbance response for small-height perturbations.