Three-wave interactions of disturbances in a supersonic boundary layer

Within the framework of the weakly nonlinear stability theory, group interaction of disturbances in a supersonic boundary layer is considered. The disturbances are represented by two spatial packets of traveling instability waves (wave trains) with multiple frequencies. The possibility of energy redistribution in such wave systems in the case of three-wave resonant interactions of packet constituents is considered. The model is used to test the dynamics of unstable waves arising due to introduction of controlled high-intensity disturbances into a supersonic boundary layer. It is found that this mechanism is not the main one for the features of streamwise dynamics of such nonlinear waves being observed.