Instability and transition in the boundary layer driven by rotating cones

Abstract. The boundary-layer flow induced by rotating cones has been studied as a generic model of three-dimensional boundary layers; Broad cones (including a disk) develop cross-flow vortices that break down to turbulence while sharp cones develop Görtler-type vortices due to a centrifugal instability. Our recent work on a sharp cone showing good agreement between hot-wire measurements and local linear stability analysis will be presented.