BOUNDARY LAYER THEORY In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is the layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity

of a bounding surface where the effects of viscosity are significant. In the Earth's atmosphere, the planetary boundary layer is the air layer near the ground affected by diurnal heat, moisture or momentum transfer to or from the surface. On an aircraft wing the boundary layer is the part of the flow close to the wing, where viscous forces distort the surrounding non-viscous flow. Skin friction drag is due to the viscous shearing that takes place between the surface and the layer of fluid immediately above it. This occurs on surfaces of objects that are long in the direction of flow compared to their height. Such bodies are called STREAMLINED. When a fluid flows over a solid surface, the layer next to the surface may become attached to it (it wets the surface). This is called the no slip condition. The layers of fluid above the surface are moving so there must be shearing taking place between the layers of the fluid. The shear stress acting between the wall and the first moving layer next to it is called the wall shear stress and denoted as tau The result is that the velocity of the fluid u increases with height y. The boundary layer thickness is taken as the distance required for the velocity to reach 99% of uo. This layer is called the BOUNDARY LAYER and is the boundary layer thickness. Fig. 1.1 Shows how the velocity "u" varies with height "y" for a typical boundary layer. DEVELOPED BOUNDARY LAYER The Reynolds number for these cases is defined as: R = ux/ is the distance from the leading edge. At low Reynolds numbers, the boundary layer may be laminar throughout the entire thickness. At higher Reynolds numbers, it is turbulent. This means that at some distance from the leading edge the flow within the boundary layer becomes turbulent. A turbulent boundary layer is very unsteady and the streamlines do not remain parallel. The boundary layer shape represents an average of the velocity at any height. There is a region between the laminar and turbulent section where transition takes place The turbulent boundary layer exists on top of a thin laminar layer called the LAMINAR SUBLAYER. The velocity gradient within this layer is linear as shown. A deeper analysis would reveal that for long surfaces, the boundary layer is turbulent over most of the length. Many equations have been developed to describe the shape of the laminar and turbulent boundary layers and these may be used to estimate the skin friction drag. Note that for this ideal example, it is assumed that the velocity is the undisturbed velocity u 0 everywhere outside the boundary layer and that there is no acceleration and hence no change in the static pressure acting on the surface. There is hence no drag force due to pressure changes.

The boundary layer thickness, , is the distance across a boundary layer from the wall to a point where the flow velocity has essentially reached the 'free stream' velocity, . This distance

is defined normal to the wall, and the point where the flow velocity is essentially that of the free stream is customarily defined as the point where: u(y)= 0.99 U0
The displacement thickness is defined by considering the total mass flow through the boundary layer. This mass flow is the same as if the boundary layer were completely at rest, with a thickness, *: For laminar boundary layers * is about one third of the distance to the edge of the boundary layer, . The momentum thickness, , is defined similarly, using the momentum flux rather than the mass flux: For laminar boundary layers, tends to be about an order of magnitude greater than . The ratio of * to is termed the shape factor, H: