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The document discusses flow past a flat plate parallel to an oncoming stream. At low Reynolds numbers, the viscous region extends far ahead and to the sides of the plate, greatly retarding the stream and causing large changes in pressure distribution with small changes in flow parameters. At high Reynolds numbers exceeding around 10^6, the boundary layer is so thin that its displacement effect on the outer inviscid layer is negligible, allowing the pressure distribution along the plate to be computed from inviscid theory as if the boundary layer were not there.

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Sabir Ahmed
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15 views

Presentation 1

The document discusses flow past a flat plate parallel to an oncoming stream. At low Reynolds numbers, the viscous region extends far ahead and to the sides of the plate, greatly retarding the stream and causing large changes in pressure distribution with small changes in flow parameters. At high Reynolds numbers exceeding around 10^6, the boundary layer is so thin that its displacement effect on the outer inviscid layer is negligible, allowing the pressure distribution along the plate to be computed from inviscid theory as if the boundary layer were not there.

Uploaded by

Sabir Ahmed
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 12

In Fig. 7.

1 a uniform stream U moves parallel


to a sharp flat plate of length L.
If the Reynolds number UL/ is low (Fig.
7.1a), the viscous region is very broad and
extends far ahead and to the sides of the plate.
The plate retards the oncoming stream
greatly, and small changes in flow parameters
cause large changes in the pressure
distribution along the plate. Thus, although in
principle it should be possible to patch the
where Rex = Ux/ is called the
local Reynolds number of the
flow along the plate surface.
The turbulent-flow formula
applies for Rex greater than
approximately 10^6.
Some computed values from
Eq. (7.1) are
The blanks indicate that the formula is not
applicable. In all cases these boundary layers
are so thin that their displacement effect on the
outer inviscid layer is negligible.
Thus the pressure distribution along the plate
can be computed from inviscid theory as if the
boundary layer were not even there. This
external pressure field then “drives”the
boundary-layer flow, acting as a forcing
function in the momentum equation along the
surface.
We shall explain this boundary-layer theory in Secs. 7.4 and
7.5.For slender bodies, such as plates and airfoils parallel to
the oncoming stream, we conclude that this assumption of
negligible interaction between the boundary layer and
the outer pressure distribution is an excellent approximation.
For a blunt-body flow, however, even at very high

Reynolds numbers, there is a discrepancy in the

viscous-inviscid patching concept. Figure 7.2 shows

two sketches of flow past a two- or three-dimensional

blunt body. In the idealized sketch (7.2a), there is a

thin film of boundary layer about the body and a

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