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1) A boundary layer develops along any surface where a fluid flows past it, such as a flat plate or airfoil wing. Within the boundary layer, viscous forces slow the flow near the surface, with velocity increasing until matching the free stream flow outside the layer. 2) In duct flow, the boundary layers from the walls grow and eventually fill the entire cross section, such that the core flow is fully affected by viscosity. 3) Boundary layers develop on any object in a moving fluid, starting at the leading edge or front surface and thickening downstream. They are found on surfaces like plates, spheres, cylinders, and in pipes, channels, oceans, and the atmosphere.

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Athlur Sai Kiran
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43 views12 pages

Untitled

1) A boundary layer develops along any surface where a fluid flows past it, such as a flat plate or airfoil wing. Within the boundary layer, viscous forces slow the flow near the surface, with velocity increasing until matching the free stream flow outside the layer. 2) In duct flow, the boundary layers from the walls grow and eventually fill the entire cross section, such that the core flow is fully affected by viscosity. 3) Boundary layers develop on any object in a moving fluid, starting at the leading edge or front surface and thickening downstream. They are found on surfaces like plates, spheres, cylinders, and in pipes, channels, oceans, and the atmosphere.

Uploaded by

Athlur Sai Kiran
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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When a fluid flows over an immersed body, such as a flat plate, the velocity of fluid at

the solid/fluid interface is same as that of the immersed body. Viscous forces affect
the flow near the solid surface but further away the flow is almost inviscid and
velocity is same as that of the free stream. This layer where the velocity of fluid
changes from that of the solid to the free stream is known as the boundary layer and
this type of flow is known as the boundary layer flow. Figure schematically shows the
velocity profile over a flat plate. The boundary layer thickness is zero initially and it
grows as the fluid moves along the plate.
In the case of flow through a duct, the viscous boundary layers grow from the walls and
fill the entire duct. So, except at the entrance region, there is no boundary layer
separating viscous and inviscid flow, as shown in Fig. Flow beyond the entrance region is
fully developed flow.
Boundary layers develop on objects of any shape immersed in a fluid moving relative to the object: flat

plates, airplane wings and other streamlined shapes, and blunt or bluff bodies like spheres or cylinders or

sediment particles. Boundary layers also develop next to the external boundaries of a flow: the walls of

pipes and ducts, the beds and bottoms of channels, the ocean bottom, and the land surface under the

moving atmosphere. In every case the boundary layer has to start somewhere, as at the front surface or

leading edge of a body immersed in the flow or at the upstream end of any solid boundary to the flow. And

in every case it grows or expands downstream, until the flow passes by the body or until it meets another

boundary layer growing from some other surface, or until it reaches a free surface, or until it is prevented

from further thickening by encountering a stably density-stratified layer of the medium — as is commonly

the case in the atmosphere and in the deep ocean.


The dimensionless velocity vx/v∞ rapidly increases with δ and becomes almost unity at β = 5. The
boundary layer thickness is taken as the point where velocity is 99% of the free stream velocity or vx/v∞ =
0.99. This corresponds to β = 5.
If we divide the above equation on both sides by x, then the equation becomes dimensionless

The Drag Force exerted by the fluid on the surface is given by the following equation
Steady flow of a viscous fluid at very low Reynolds numbers (“creeping flow”) past a
sphere. The flow lines are shown in a planar section parallel to the flow direction and
passing through the center of the sphere.
At very low Reynolds numbers, Re << 1, the flow lines relative to the sphere are about as shown in Figure.
Points to note:
(i) for these very small Reynolds numbers the flow pattern is symmetrical front to back.
(ii) The flow lines are straight and uniform in the free stream far in front of the sphere, but they are deflected as
they pass around the sphere.
(iii) For a large distance away from the sphere the flow lines become somewhat more widely spaced, indicating
that the fluid velocity is less than the free-stream velocity.
(iv) Flow lines are less crowded together around the midsection of the sphere,
(v) For very low Reynolds numbers, the effect of “crowding”, which acts to increase the velocity, is more than
offset by the effect of viscous retardation, which acts to decrease the velocity.
(vi) The velocity of the fluid is everywhere zero at the sphere surface increases only slowly away from the sphere,
even in the vicinity of the midsection: at low Reynolds numbers, the retarding effect of the sphere is felt for great
distances out into the fluid.
Zone of retardation shrinks greatly as the Reynolds number increases, and the “crowding” effect causes the
velocity around the midsection of the sphere to be greater than the free-stream velocity except very near the
surface of the sphere.
The terminal velocity = 0.085 m/s

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