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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010
It has been known for many years that a laminar boundary layer adjoining a supersonic stream is in principle capable of spontaneously evolving from an unseparated to a separated form in which the boundary layer is detached from the wall and in between a slowly moving reversed flow is set up. The phenomenon arises because any thickening of the boundary layer tends to induce an adverse pressure gradient which in turn accelerates the thickening of the boundary layer and hence its evolution from the normal (Blasius) form.