BOUNDARY LAYER THEORY

(Re>1000)
Unit # 1
Sec 8.6 Potter
 Why study Boundary layer
• It would help you understand how aircrafts
fly
• It would help you calculate
drag on surfaces
skin friction on surfaces
boundary layer thickness
 Freestream & Boundary Layer
Fluid stream over a solid surface may be divided into
two parts:
a) A thin layer adjacent to the surface, where only
viscosity dominates called BOUNDARY LAYER
(It is a viscous flow. It is very thin. The pressure
within the boundary layer may be taken as that at
the wall)
b) An inviscid flow outside this boundary layer
throughout called FREE STREAM
(It is a potential flow)
 Boundary layer on flat plate

Boundary layer begins as a laminar flow with zero thickness at

the leading edge of flat plate or finite thickness on a blunt object.
After some distance downstream the laminar flow undergoes
transition to turbulent flow.
 Laminar & turbulent layer
• A laminar flow becomes turbulent downstream of
the flow. [watch the smoke from a cigarette and
water from a tap]
• Similarly the flow inside the boundary layer is
initially laminar, goes through a transition region
when large-scale eddies are formed and then
develops into turbulent flow. Transition could
occur at Reynolds number as high as 106. We will
take 0.5x106 as the transition point.
 Laminar to Turbulent BL

Transition from laminar to turbulent when Rex > 500,000

Local Reynolds number, Rex = U xU x/
Turbulent boundary layer
 DEFINITIONS
BOUNDARY LAYER thickness is the distance
from the wall up to a height where the fluid
  y(u 0.99U s )
velocity is 99% of the free stream velocity
DISPLACEMENT thickness is the distance by 
 u 
which the boundary layer would have to be   1    U dy
*

displaced if the entire flow were frictionless 0 s 

and the same mass flow is maintained

MOMENTUM thickness is the distance from

the surface such that the linear momentum

flow rate for uniform velocity for this height u  u 
is equal to the actual momentum flow rate   1  dy
over the entire boundary layer section using 0
Us  Us 
the actual velocity profile. It is also a
measure of total plate drag
 Boundary layer

Figure 8.24 – Boundary layer in air with Recrit = 3 x 105.

Shear
stress
 Solved Problem (Fox-415)
• A laboratory wind tunnel has a test section, 305 mm
square. Boundary-layer velocity profiles are
measured at two cross sections and displacement
thicknesses are evaluated from the measured
profiles. At section(1), where the freestream speed
is U1=26 m/s, the displacement thickness is 1.5 mm.
At section (2), located downstream from section (1)
displacement thickness is 2.1 mm. Calculate the
change in static pressure between sections (1) and
(2). Express the result as a fraction of the
freestream dynamic pressure at section (1).
Wind Tunnel
 Home work (Douglas 11.2)
• Determine the ratio of momentum and
displacement thickness to the boundary layer
thickness,  when the layer velocity profile is
given by u  y
0.5

 
U  
where u is the velocity at a height y above the
surface and the flow free stream velocity is U.
[ Ans: 0.166 m, 0.33m]