Abstract: Parabolized stability equations (PSE) were used to study the evolution of disturbances in compressible boundary layers. The results were compared with those obtained by direct numerical simulations (DNS), to check if the results from PSE method were reliable or not. The results of comparison showed that no matter for subsonic or supersonic boundary layers, results from both the PSE and DNS method agreed with each other reasonably well, and the agreement between temperatures was better than those between velocities. In addition, linear PSE was used to calculate the neutral curve for small amplitude disturbances in a supersonic boundary layer. Compared with those obtained by linear stability theory (LST), the situation was similar to those for incompressible boundary layer.

Key words: linear stability theory, parabolized stability equations, direct numerical simulations