An important challenge in the electrification of aircraft propulsion systems is the design of thermal management systems because of an increased heat load that needs to be dissipated. As an alternative to high-drag external heat exchangers, one can consider surface heat exchangers to dissipate the extra thermal energy. This reduces the size of the external heat exchangers and consequently reduces drag. However, a non-adiabatic wall can affect skin friction through a movement of boundary layer transition. Limited studies are available on the effect of non-adiabatic surfaces on laminar-to-turbulent transition in swept wing boundary layers dominated by crossflow instability (CFI). Therefore, the current work experimentally investigates the effect of surface heating on the stability and breakdown of the stationary crossflow instability. The experimental work is supported by Compressible Linear Stability Theory (CLST) computations.

Hot-Wire Anemometry (HWA) and Cold-Wire Anemometry (CWA) measurements of the boundary layer are performed on the STEP model, which features a 45 degree swept flat plate, for both adiabatic and heated surface conditions. Both the experimental and CLST results show a destabilisation of the primary instability linked to the increase in the growth rate of the stationary crossflow (CF) mode. The experimental results show that the type-I secondary CF instability exhibits a larger magnitude in the presence of wall heating and the mode emerges upstream compared to the adiabatic wall condition. The type-III mode displays a significant increase in magnitude in the presence of wall heating, thereby indicating a considerable destabilisation. The effect on laminar breakdown is identified by analysing velocity fluctuations in the 12-17 kHz frequency band in planes parallel to the surface for two different wall distances. A temperature ratio of 1.035 is found to advance breakdown by 5.7%.