The Behaviour and Effects of Laminar Separation Bubbles on Aerofoils in Incompressible Flow

Abstract

Summary A survey of information on laminar separation bubbles and their effect on the stalling characteristics of aerofoils is presented. It is shown that there are two principal kinds of bubbles and that their existence can be predicted. It is believed that their behaviour may be related to the kind of boundary layer transition process present. It is intended that a second part of this paper will describe the characteristics of aerofoils at Reynolds numbers typical of model aircraft and show how the observed phenomena are related to the behaviour of laminar separation bubbles.