1.

0 INTRODUCTION
When a viscous fluid flows along a fixed impermeable wall, or past the rigid surface
of an immersed body, an essential condition is that the velocity at any point on the wall or
other fixed surface is zero and it is important to understand how the presence of solid surfaces
affects fluid flow. Consider the flow of a fluid over a solid surface and the fluid is in direct
contact with the surface with no slip. This is known as no-slip condition. By looking at the
velocity gradient, the layer becomes slowed down from one to another. A consequence of the
no-slip condition is that all velocity profiles must have zero values with respect to the surface
at the points of contact between a fluid and a solid surface. The extent to which this condition
modifies the general character of the flow depends upon the value of the viscosity. If the
body is of streamlined shape and if the viscosity is small without being negligible, the
modifying effect appears to be confined within narrow regions adjacent to the solid surfaces;
these are called boundary layers. Within such layers the fluid velocity changes rapidly from
zero to its main-stream value, and this may imply a steep gradient of shearing stress. A more
precise criterion for the existence of a well-defined laminar boundary layer is that the
Reynolds number should be large, though not so large as to imply a breakdown of the laminar
flow.

2.0 OBJECTIVE
There are 3 main objectives are:
1. To measured the boundary layer velocity layer and observed the growth of the
boundary layer for the flat plate with smooth and rough surface.
2. To measured the boundary layer properties for the measured velocity profile.
3. To studied the effect of surface roughness on the development of the boundary
layer.

4. Able to plot graph y against () and y against ()(1 ) and make the comparison on

smooth and rough surface.

5. Able to measured , * and as experimental data and managed to compare the
values.
3.0 THEORY

When fluid flows past an immersed body, a thin boundary layer will be developed near
the solid body due to the no-slip condition. The flow can be treated as inviscid flow outside of
this boundary layer, while viscous effects are important inside of this boundary layer.

In a laminar boundary layer any exchange of mass or momentum takes place only
between adjacent layers on a microscopic scale which is not visible to the eye. Consequently,
molecular viscosity is able predict the shear stress associated. Laminar boundary layers are
found only when the Reynolds numbers are small.

A turbulent boundary layer on the other hand is marked by mixing across several layers
of it. The mixing is now on a macroscopic scale. Packets of fluid may be seen moving across.
Thus there is an exchange of mass, momentum and energy on a much bigger scale compared
to a laminar boundary layer. A turbulent boundary layer forms only at larger Reynolds
numbers. The scale of mixing cannot be handled by molecular viscosity alone.

Figure 1: Boundary layer of laminar and turbulent

The boundary layer thickness, , is defined as the distance from the surface to the
point where the velocity is within 1 percent of the stream velocity.

uy= 0.99U
The displacement thickness, *, is the distance by which the solid boundary would have to be
displaced in a frictionless flow to give the same mass deficit as exists in the boundary layer.

= (1 )
0

The momentum thickness, , is define as the thickness of a layer of fluid of velocity, U (free
stream velocity), for which the momentum flux is equal to the deficit of momentum flux
through the boundary layer.

= ( 1 )
0

The equation for velocity measured by pitot tube is given as

2(oil gh)
=
air

The Blasiuss exact solutions to the laminar boundary yield the following equations for the
above properties.

5 .0 x

Re x

1.72 x

Re x

0.664 x

Re x

Due to the complexity of the flow, there is no exact solution to the turbulent boundary layer.
The velocity profile within the boundary layer commonly approximated using the 1/7 power
law.
 1
u y 7

U

The properties of boundary layer are approximated using the momentum integral equation,
which result in the following expression.

0.370 x
1
Re x 5

0.0463 x
1
Re x 5

0.036 x
1
Re x 5

Another measure of the boundary layer is the shape factor, H, which is the ratio of the
displacement thickness to the momentum thickness, H = */. For laminar flow, H increases
from 2.6 to 3.5 at separation. For turbulent boundary layer, H increases from 1.3 to
approximately 2.5 at separation.