Boundary Layer Interactions With Compliant Coatings: An Overview

Abstract

During the past five years, several research programs have been conducted to reexamine the subject of boundary layer interactions with compliant coatings. One of the objectives of the research was to answer the question: Can compliant coatings delay transition and/or significantly reduce turbulence skin friction on bodies at high Reynolds numbers? Several significant developments have been achieved by the many investigators participating in these studies. The purpose of this article is to review the progress in our understanding of compliant coating interactions with laminar, transitional, and turbulent boundary layers. The paper will include some work done prior to the recent five year period and available in the open literature, but will emphasize more recent work, some of which is not as yet published.