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Kinematic wave theory is used to determine under what conditions breakdown of a steady or unsteady laminar flow into high frequency oscillations should occur. The analysis of a small-scale secondary wave riding on a large-scale inhomogeneity, such as that produced by a finite amplitude primary instability wave, reveals that the breakdown mechanism has three basic ingredients: (i) a self-excited secondary wave with a group velocity near the propagation velocity (phase velocity) of the primary wave, (ii) space-time focusing of the secondary wave train on the primary wave crest and (iii) a nonlinear filtering mechanism leading to rectification of the secondary wave. The theory is applied to a laminar shear flow. Good quantitative agreement with the experiments on boundary-layer transition by Klebanoff, Tidstrom & Sargent (1962) is found for the critical condition leading to breakdown. Also, the theory is able to explain all the main qualitative breakdown features observed by Klebanoff et al. and others, such as the rapid localized onset, and the formation of a hairpin vortex lifting up from the surface downstream of the primary wave crest.
M. T. Landahl (Thu,) studied this question.