2. Analysis of Obviously Boundary Layer… P M V Subbarao Professor Mechanical Engineering Department I I T Delhi Flat Plate Boundary Layer Flows

3. Prandtls Viscous Flow Past a General Body Prandtl’s striking insight is clearer when we consider flow past a general smooth body. The boundary layer is taken as thin in the neighborhood of the body. Curvilinear coordinates can be introduced. x the arc length along curves paralleling the body surface and y the coordinate normal to these curves. In the stretched variables, and in the limit for large Re, it turns out that we again get only must be interpreted to mean that the pressure is what would be computed from the inviscid flow past the body.

4. Bernoulli’s Pressure Prevails in Prandtls Boundary Layer If p  and U  are the free stream values of p and u, then Bernoulli’s theorem for steady flow yields along the body surface It is this p(x) which now applies in the boundary layer. Thus the inviscid flow past the body determines the pressure variation which is then imposed on the boundary layer through the now known function in.

5. Euler Solution of Wedge Flow

6. Velocity Outside Boundary Layer for Cylinder

7. Prandtl’s Boundary Layer Equations We note that the system of equations given below are usually called the Prandtl boundary-layer equations.

8. Closing Remarks on Prandtl’s Idea We have discussed here the essence of Prandtl’s idea without any indication of possible problems in implementing it for an arbitrary body. The main problem which will arise is that of boundary layer separation. It turns out that the function p(x), which is determined by the inviscid flow, may lead to a boundary layer which cannot be continued indefinitely along the surface of the body. What can and does occur is a breaking away of the boundary layer from the surface, the ejection of vorticity into the free stream, and the creation of free separation streamline. Separation is part of the stalling of an airfoil at high angles of attack.

9. The ejection of vorticity into the free stream

10. Blasius’ solution for a semi-infinite flat plate Prandtl’s boundary layer equations for flat plate: Subject to the conditions: To find an exact solution for the velocity distribution, Blasius introduced the dimensionless coordinates as:

11. 10 NOMINAL BOUNDARY LAYER THICKNESS Until now we have not given a precise definition for boundary layer thickness. Here we use  to denote nominal boundary thickness, which is defined to be the value of y at which u = 0.99 U, i.e. The choice 0.99 is arbitrary; we could have chosen 0.98 or 0.995 or whatever we find reasonable.

12. Streamwise Variation of Boundary Layer Thickness Consider a plate of length L. Based on the Boundary Layer Approximations, maximum value of  is estimated as Similarly the local value of  is estimated as

13. SIMILARITY One triangle is similar to another triangle if it can be mapped onto the other triangle by means of a uniform stretching. The red triangles are similar to the blue triangle. The red triangles are not similar to the blue triangle. Perhaps the same idea can be applied to the solution of our problem:

14. 13 Similarity Solution Suppose the solution has the property that when u/U is plotted against y/  (where  (x) is the previously-defined nominal boundary layer thickness) a universal function is obtained, with no further dependence on x. Such a solution is called a similarity solution. Similarity satisfied Similarity not satisfied Similarity is satisfied if a plot of u/U versus y/  defines exactly the same function regardless of the value of x.

15. Discovery of SIMILARITY Variable For a solution obeying similarity in the velocity profile we must have where f 1 is a universal function, independent of x (position along the plate). Since we have reason to believe that We can rewrite any such similarity form as Note that  is a dimensionless variable.