Lecture 25, March 8, 2004

• Quiz tomorrow (ch4 – ch7)

o Up to Blasius solution
o Focus on Understanding

Thermal Boundary Layer Solution

Begin by defining our non-dimensional temperature,

Starting from the Boundary layer energy equation,

and applying the similarity parameter and all the
results from the derivation of the Blasius momentum
equation, we find a second order ordinary differential
equation,

We need to apply two boundary conditions to this

second order ODE, and they are that

We can solve this equation using the provided Matlab

functions, or any other solver, for Pr = 1, and find
Note that the temperature profile does indeed go from
0 to 1, and that the gradient of temperature starts at a
finite value representing the heat transfer from the
surface, and decreases to 0 in the free stream, where
there is no heat transfer since the temperature is
uniform. We can now experiment with different
Prandtl numbers, and see what effect this has on the
solution.
Note that for Pr =1 the thermal boundary layer is
exactly the same size as the momentum boundary
layer, as anticipated from the original governing
equations (for zero pressure gradient they are
identical). As we increase Pr, the thermal boundary
layer gets smaller. As we decrease Pr, the thermal
boundary layer gets larger. This has an effect on the
temperature gradient, and correspondingly, on the
heat transfer from the plate. We find by investigating
solutions for several Pr, that the size of the thermal
boundary layer can be correlated to the size of the
momentum boundary layer by,
for Pr > 0.6. We can take this information, as well as
the solution for the temperature gradients at the wall
to define the Nusselt number for heat transfer from a
flat plate subject to a laminar boundary layer,

At some critical value of Re, the flow will transition to

turbulent flow, and these equations will no longer be
valid. Turbulent flow is far more difficult to solve as it
is unsteady and three dimensional. Therefore people
have resorted to correlating experimental data, and to
fitting curves from experimental data of the form
dictated by our dimensional analysis (i.e. Nu =
f(Re,Pr)). We can then use these empirical
correlations as long as we do not exceed the limits of
the data obtained by the experiments.

Empirical correlations for Turbulent flow

The shear stress for a turbulent flat plate boundary
layer flow is found to be

The size of the turbulent boundary layer is found to be

And, the heat transfer is characterized by

For comparison sake, lets plot the boundary layer
thickness as a function of distance along the plate as
the flow transitions from laminar to turbulent.

Note that the turbulent boundary layer grows at a

much faster rate than does a laminar boundary layer.
You need to be careful if you have a situation as
above, since both the laminar and turbulent portions
of the plate will be important. Recall the averaging
example we did last week.

When using correlations, be very careful of the range

of applicability in Re and Pr. Also note carefully the
definition of the critical Re for transition to turbulence,
Xc. The error in some of these correlations can be as
large as 20% Æ using them outside their range of
applicability can result in completely erroneous results
as the physics can change completely.

The question arises in using the correlations as to

what temperature the properties should be evaluated
at. In most cases these properties should be
evaluated at the film temperature, which is defined as
the average temperature in your domain.

It is important to consider this point, because we have

assumed that the material properties our constant in
order to simplify the governing equations, and to
decouple the energy equation from the momentum
equation. Keep this in mind as you use these Æ
when the temperature differences get large, there will
be errors due to this assumption.

See section 7.2.4 for an unheated starting length

which will apply to circuit boards etc.