Feedback Instability in a Boundary-layer Flow over Roughness

Linear stability of an incompressible triple-deck flow over a wall roughness is considered for disturbances of high frequency. The wall roughness consists of two relatively short obstacles placed far apart on an otherwise flat surface. It is shown that the flow is unstable to feedback or global mode disturbances. The feedback loop is formed by algebraically decaying disturbances propagating upstream and weakly growing Tollmien-Schlichting waves travelling downstream and as such represents an interaction between modes from continuous and discrete spectra of the corresponding parallelflow problem. An example of growth rate calculation for a specific roughness is considered. §