The Origin of Turbulence in Near-Wall Flows

This book presents a comprehensive survey of the origin of turbulence in near-wall shear layer flows. Instead of going too far into details modern approaches to the problem are discussed in a conceptual treatment. The transition from laminar to turbulent flows in shear layers is described including the generation of flow perturbations, their amplification and development, the breakdown of the initial laminar state, and transformation to a turbulent regime. This book also presents new approaches to boundary-layer transitions with strong external-flow perturbations and to the prediction and control of the presented near-wall transitions to turbulence. This book is addressed to researchers, lecturers and students in engineering, physics and mathematics.