Competition of multiple Gortler modes in hypersonic boundary layer flows are investigated with the local and marching methods. The wall-layer mode （mode W） and the trapped-layer mode （mode T） both occur in the compressible boundary layer where there exists a temperature adjustment layer near the upper edge. The mode T has the largest growth rate at a lower Gortler number while the mode W dominates at larger G/Srtler numbers. These two modes are both responsible for the flow transition in the hypersonic flows especially when Gortler number is in the high value range in which the crossover of these two modes takes place. Such high Gortler numbers are virtually far beyond the neutral regime. The nonparallel base flows, therefore, cease to influence the stability behavior of the Gortler modes. The effects of the Mach number on the multiple Gortler modes are studied within a chosen Mach number of 0.95, 2, 4 and 6. When the flow Mach number is sufficiently large, e.g., Ma ≥4, the growth rate crossover of the mode T and mode W occurs both in the conventional G-β map as well as on the route downstream for a fixed wavelength disturbance. Four particular regions （Region T, T-W, W-T and W） around the crossover point are highlighted with the marching analysis and the result matches that of the local analysis. The initial disturbance of a normal mode maintains the shape in its corresponding dominating region while a shape-transformation occurs outside this region.
Nonlinear parabolized stability equations are employed in this work to investigate the nonlinear development of the G6rtler insta- bility up to the saturation stage. The perturbed boundary layer is highly inflectional both in the normalwise and spanwise directions and receptive to the secondary instabilities. The Floquet theory is applied to solve the fundamental, subharmonic and detuned secondary instabilities. With the Gortler-vortices-distorted base flow, two classes of secondary disturbances, i.e. odd modes and even modes, are identified according to the eigenfunctions of the disturbances. These modes may result in different patterns in the late stages of the transition process. Li and Malik [ 1 ] have shown the sinuous and varicose types of breakdown originating from the odd and even modes. The current study focuses on the four most amplified modes termed the even modes I ＆ Ⅱ and odd modes I ＆ lI. Odd mode II was missing in the work of Li and Malik [1] probably due to their inviscid simplifeation. The detuned modes are confirmed to be less amplifed than the fundamental （for the odd mode I） and subharmonic modes （for even modes I ＆ II and the odd mode II）.
