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Next: Boundary Layer Equations Up: Boundary Layers: An Aerospace Previous: Introduction
Subsections
Boundary Layer Thickness
Displacement Thickness
Momentum Thickness
Boundary Layer Parameters
Three main parameters (described below) that are used to characterize the size and shape of a boundary
layer are the boundary layer thickness, the displacement thickness, and the momentum thickness. Ratios
of these thicknesses describe the shape of the boundary layer.
There are other such thicknesses, but they are not as common.
Boundary Layer Thickness
Figure 3: Boundary Layer Thickness
The boundary layer thickness, signified by , is simply the thickness of the viscous boundary layer
region. Because the main effect of viscosity is to slow the fluid near a wall, the edge of the viscous
region is found at the point where the fluid velocity is essentially equal to the freestream velocity.
In a boundary layer, the fluid asymptotically approaches the freestream velocity as one moves away
from the wall, so it never actually equals the freestream velocity. Conventionally (and arbitrarily), we
define the edge of the boundary layer to be the point at which the fluid velocity equals 99% of the free
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stream velocity:
Because the boundary layer thickness is defined in terms of the velocity distribution, it is sometimes
called the velocity thickness or the velocity boundary layer thickness. Figure 3 illustrates the boundary
layer thickness.
There are no general equations for boundary layer thickness. Specific equations exist for certain types of
boundary layer. For a Blasius (flatplate, incompressible, laminar) boundary layer, the boundary layer
thickness is given by
where is the distance from the leading edge of the plate (Emanuel, 230).
Displacement Thickness
The displacement thickness, symbolized by , is the distance a streamline just outside the boundary
layer is displaced away from the wall compared to the inviscid solution. Another way to describe it is the
distance the wall would have to be displaced to yield the same solution for flow outside the boundary
layer as the boundary layer equations yield.
Figure 4: Displacement Thickness
Still another way to describe displacement thickness is in Figure 4. The displacement thickness is the
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distance that, when multiplied by the freestream velocity, equals the integral of velocity defect, ,
across the boundary layer. That is,
Solving for ,
(1)
The displacement thickness is important in iterative boundary layer solutions. After employing the
boundary layer equations to calculate the displacement thickness along the wall, a virtual wall is created
by displacing the wall outward by the displacement thickness. A new inviscid solution is computed using
this virtual wall. This yields slightly different freestream conditions than the initial calculation. The
boundary layer solution is then recalculated, using the new freestream conditions, for the real wall. The
process is repeated until the displacement thickness stops moving with each iteration.
Momentum Thickness
The momentum thickness, symbolized by , is the distance that, when multiplied by the square of the
freestream velocity, equals the integral of the momentum defect, , across the boundary layer.
That is,
Solving for ,
(2)
The momentum thickness is somewhat harder to visualize than the displacement thickness. One can
visualize it using Figure 4, except that specific momentum flux distribution replaces the velocity
distribution .
The momentum thickness is useful in determining the skin friction drag on a surface. The total skin
friction drag per unit depth on the surface is given simply by , evaluated at the trailing edge.
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