APPLICATION OF BOUNDARY LAYER THEORY

Application in aerodynamics industries

Figure 1 Aerofoil in Aerodynamics Industries

In the aerodynamics industries, the boundary layer is particularly important

because it is responsible for a considerable amount of drag. The transition between the
laminar and turbulent flow are called the boundary layer separation. One of the factors
which influences this separation is the pressure gradient. It seen that the shear stress
caused by viscosity has retarding effects upon the flow. This effect can however be
overcome if there is a negative pressure gradient offered to the flow. There are other
factors as well, such as the shape of the body and the drag. The shape of the body
determines the relative magnitude of the drag component. The drag is the force that
opposes motion, an aircraft must overcome the drag force upon it, in order to fly. A thin
body causes less pressure drag when compared to a thick body which is prone to
separation and produces considerable pressure drag. This is one of the reasons for the
streamlined shape of aircraft, because streamlining a body to decrease pressure drag
enables it, to avoid separation.

Figure 2 Cross section of an aerofoil

The geometry of the shape is such that it have a favourable gradient in pressure
to start with and up to a point P. The negative pressure gradient will counteract the
retarding effect of the shear stress (which is due to viscosity) in the boundary layer. For
the aerofoil, it has an adverse pressure gradient downstream of P. Now the adverse
pressure gradient begins to retard. This effect is felt more strongly in the regions close
to the wall where the momentum is lower than in the region near the free-stream. From
figure, it can be seen that the velocity near the wall reduces and the boundary layer
thickens. A continuous retardation of flow brings the wall shear stress at the point S on
the wall to zero. From this point onwards, the shear stress becomes negative, the flow
reverses, and a region of recirculating flow develops. In this case, the flow no longer
follows the contour of the aerofoil, and it say that the flow has separated. The point S
where the shear stress is zero is the point of separation. Depending on the flow
conditions, the recirculating flow terminates and the flow may become re-attached to the
body of the aerofoil. There are a variety of factors that could influence the reattachment. The pressure gradient may now be favourable due to the body geometry.
The other factor is that the flow which is initially laminar may undergo transition and may
become turbulent. A turbulent flow has more energy and momentum than a laminar flow,
and so to overcome the problem of boundary layer separation, the boundary layer is
deliberately tripped into turbulence at a point prior to the location of the laminar
separation, in which case, the fuller velocity profile of the turbulent boundary layers

allows it to sustain the adverse pressure gradient without separating and so the flow
may re-attach. On the aerofoil, the separation may occur near the leading edge, but the
effect is not significant, however, the dangerous situation is when it have separation
occurring more towards the trailing edge in which the flow will not re-attach, this
phenomenon, can lead to the loss of lift of the aerofoil which is termed as ``stall'' in
which an aircraft can suddenly drop from the sky and so pilots and engineers are
striving hard to avoid this problem. One of the approaches to this problem of separation
is to have a clear understanding of the boundary layer. This understanding has led to
several solutions, such as designing special wing sections to avoid the boundary layer
separation. In this case, the boundary layer may be sucked away through a porous
surface. Just as flow separation can be understood in terms of the combined effects of
viscosity and adverse pressure gradients, separated flows can be reattached by the
application of a suitable modification to the boundary conditions. Suction is applied to
the leading edge of the airfoil at a sharp angle of attack, removing the early separation
zone and moving the separation point much farther downstream.

Reference
1) Saso Knez (2005). Airfoil boundary layer. Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
University of Ljubljana
2) Andre Bakker (2002). Boundary Layers and Separation. Retrieved on 6 June
2016