FLUID MECHANICS

Alternate Similaritysolutions for

boundary layer over a flat plate


AKHILESH SASANKAN
1206593306





Adhil Ridha in his paper On the three-dimensional alternative to the
Blasius boundary-layer solution (see Ridha, [1]) discussed
numerically that there exists a class of three dimensional solutions to
boundary layer over a flat plate confined to almost zero incident
conditions.
In his three dimensional alternative to two dimensional blasius
solution the flow occurs under the same external flow conditions
when a cross flow component growing linearly in the cross-flow
direction is allowed for while the other two components remaining
independent of this direction. Also considered are the existence of
streamwise vortices (see Ridha, [2]) originating at the apex of the
side-edge of quarter-infinite flat plates (see Fig. 1).
The effect of the wind tunnel side-walls (on experiments involving finite flat plates) are also taken into consideration
this this problem.
Further he considered boundary-layer solutions for the viscous flow near the plane of symmetry of a finite flat plate
at almost zero-incident. The external flow is assumed of the form (Vx,Vz) = U(x/l)m(1,z/x), (U, l) representing
velocity and length scales with m being an arbitrary constant. In this frame work, boundary layer solutions are
sought in the admissible space of m when (m), assumed as a function of m, is taken close to zero. This enabled to
find (numerically) three-dimensional solutions confined to narrow bands in the admissible
space of m.
Consider Boundary layer flow (specifically in the vicinity of the symmetry plan) past a finite flat plate in the
spanwise direction but semi-infinite in the streamwise direction. The flow configuration and the Coordinate system
are as shown in Fig. 1, the plate being defined by y = 0 and the leading edge by x = 0. Then the inviscid flow
velocity vector in the vicinity of the symmetry plan (z = 0) can be written [3] in the following form

(Vx,Vz) = U(x/l)m(1,z/x)

Under these conditions we can look for steady laminar incompressible boundary-layer flow in the form

Vx(x, y, z) = u(x, y) +z
2
u
1
(x, y)+
Vy(x, y, z) = v(x, y) +z
2
v
1
(x, y)+
Vz(x, y, z) = zw(x, y) +z
3
w
1
(x, y)+
p(x, y, z) = p0(x, y) + (1/2)z
2
p
2
(x, y)+

where p is the fluids pressure. Applying the usual boundary-layer approximations to the continuity and Navier
Stokes equations the following governing equations are found


u
x
+

+w = u

u
u
x
+ :
u

= -
1
p
p0
x
+ v

2
u

2


opi
oy
= 0(v), i = u, 2, . ..

u
w
x
+:
w

+ w
2
= -
1
p
p
2
+ v

2
w

2


where and designate the density and kinematic viscosity of the fluid, assumed constant.



Similarity solutions
Above equations admit similarity solutions which can be found by introducing two stream-like-functions (x, y)
and(x, y) together with the following definitions


which after substituting into the boundary-layer equations and using the outer flow conditions yield

These equations are to be solved subject to



In order to look for solutions in the vicinity of zero streamwise pressure gradient we look for solutions of above
equations for -forms satisfying a Taylor-series This enables us to recover the outer flow conditions of the Blasius
solution upon setting ( = 0) = 0. We have found that for a wide range of d/d( = 0), d2/d2(
= 0) and higher order derivatives (for example d/d( =0)=
+/_
0.001
+/_
0.01, d2/d2(0) = 1, 10,
1000) the admissible space turns out to lie within a very narrow band:
1 << 1.



















REFERENCES
[1] Adhil Ridha, On the three-dimensional alternative to the Blasius boundary-layer solution, Comptes Rendus Mcanique,
Volume 333, Issue 10, October 2005, Pages 768-772, ISSN 1631-0721,
[2] Ridha, Flow along streamwise corners revisited, J. Fluid Mech. 476 (2003) 223265.
[3] A. Ridha, Three-dimensional mixed convection laminar boundary-layer near a plane of symmetry, Int. J. Engrg. Sci. 34 (26)
(1996) 659675.