LAUSR

Abstract This paper examines the three-dimensional cellular patterns appearing on wings in subsonic stall and transonic buffet conditions. Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations are carried out for three-dimensional infinite swept configurations closed by periodic boundary conditions in the spanwise direction. In both flow conditions the occurrence of stall/buffet cells is observed, as well as their convection at a speed proportional to the sweep angle. In transonic buffet conditions, this phenomenon is superimposed to the well-documented two-dimensional buffet instability. These results indicate that the discrepancies between two-dimensional and three-dimensional buffet are caused by the occurrence of buffet cells and that this phenomenon is similar to the one observed at low speed. These phenomena are then studied using global linear stability analysis with the assumption of a periodic flow in the spanwise direction. From these analyses a mode coherent with the two-dimensional buffet is obtained, as well as a mode coherent with two-dimensional vortex shedding in stall conditions. In addition, in both flow conditions an unstable mode reminiscent of stall/buffet cells is observed.