Abstract: Spatial mode direct numerical simulation has been applied to study the mechanism of breakdown in laminar-turbulent transition of a supersonic boundary layer on a flat plate with Mach number 4.5. Analysis of the result showed that, during the breakdown process in laminar-turbulent transition, the mechanism causing the mean flow profile to evolve swiftly from
laminar to turbulent was that the modification of mean flow profile by the disturbance, when they became larger, leads to remarkable change of its stability characteristics. Though the most unstable T-S wave was of second mode for laminar flow, the first mode waves played the key role in the breakdown process in laminar-turbulent transition.

Key words: supersonic boundary layer, transition, breakdown, spatial mode