INSTITUTE OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY,

ISLAMABAD
DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICS AND
ASTRONAUTICS

VISCOUS FLOW
PROJECT ON BLASIUS SOLUTION

Prepared by: SHAKEEL AHMED

Reg No: 150512001
MS (Aerodynamics / CFD)

Submitted to: Dr Imran

Akhtar

VISCOUS FLOW
Project 1
Due on 30 November, 2016

Problem Statement

Blasius solution for a laminar flow over a flat plat is given by the
following third ordered ordinary differential equation: ' ''

''

2 f + ff =0
with following boundary conditions: f =0 @ =0
'

f =0 @=0
'

f 1 as

Objectives
(a)
Explain the assumptions made to obtain Blasius Equation from Navier
Stokes Equations.
(b)

Plot Blasius boundary layer profile using Blassius solution in MATLAB.

(c)

Analyse and comment on the obtained plot.

Introduction: The Blasius equation is a third order nonlinear ordinary differential

equation with boundary conditions at two points which describes the
nondimensional velocity distribution in the laminar boundary layer over a flat
plate.
Following conditions are applied in order to obtain the boundary layer
solution on a flat plat: (a)

Flow is laminar and two dimensional only

(b)

Flow is steady

(c)

Flow is incompressible

(d)

Gravitational effects are negligible

i.e

i.e

w=0

()/ t=0

i.e

gx g y =0

Applying above assumptions, Navier Stokes equations reduce to the

following: -

In addition, convervation of mass equation for incompressible two

dimensional flow is given as:-

H. Blasius solved these equations for the boundary layer flow past a
flat plate parallel to the flow. In addition to the above assumptions, he
further argued that since the boundary layer is thin, it is expected that the
component of velocity normal to the plat is much smaller than that parallel
to the plat. Further the rate of change of any parameter acrossthe boundary
layer should be much greater than that along the flow direction. Also the free
stream velocity is constant. Mathematically it is given as: -

and
p=0

After applying these assumptions, the Navier Stokes equations further

redcue to the following boundary layer equations: -

With following boundary conditions: u=v=0 @ y=0

u U as y
As we know that velocity components for two dimensional flows are
given in terms of stream function . where: u=

v =
y
x
Blasius introduced a similarity variable , defined as:-

U
y
vx
So stream function becomes

= v U x f ( )
where, f() is an unknown function.
In terms of the similarity variable and stream function, the flow becomes :-

By substituting these values of u and v in to the governing equations

and after considerable manipulations, following third order ordinary
differential equation is obtained: 2 f ' ' ' + ff ' ' =0
with the following transformed boundary conditions as

f =f ' =0 @=0f ' 1 as

Plot of Blasius Boundary Layer Profile for a Flat Plate

In order to numerically solve the Blasius Equation in Maltab, first we
have to convert the thrid order ordinary differential equation in to first order
ordinary differential equations.
As Blasius Equation is given by: 2 f ' ' ' + ff ' ' =0
Since this equation has only two initial conditions and one boundary
condition; therefore, the equation can be converted into three linear single
degree ordinary differential equations. To convert it into linear degree
ordinary differential equations, following method is adopted: Let,

y 1=f , y 2=f ' y 3=f ' '

So that
y '1= y 2 , y '2= y 3 y '3=

1
y y
2 1 3

These converted single degree ordinary differential equations can be

solved numerically using 4th order Runge Kutta Method on Matlab. 4th Order
Runge Kutta method is given as:-

Where

MATLAB SOLUTION
A Matlab program has been written in order to numerically sovle the
Blasius equation using RK-4 method. The code is shown in the appendix to
the report.

In order to initialize the code, a step size of 0.05 and an initial guess of
k1 = 0.33 has been given to the program. Dimensionless boundary layer
profile using similarity variable was obtained as below: -

Fig 1: Boundary Layer Profile in Dimensionless Form using Similarity variable

Comment:
From this graph it is clear that velocity is zero (no slip condition) at the
wall
( = 0) and gradually increases and reaches a value of 0.99U (99% of free
stream velocity) at about = 6.
It is pertinent to mention that if we use some other iterative scheme to
solve the equation (other then RK-4) then value of where 99% if free
stream velocity is achieved may differ. for example, the plot given in the
book has a corresponding value of = 5.
Graph of vs stream function for the values of f, f and f is also
obtained as shown below: -

Fig 2: Eta () vs stream function ()

APPENDIX
% Solution of Blasius
clc
clear all
t0=0;
tN=7;
h=0.05;
N=(tN-t0)/h;

equation(with fourth order Runge-Kutta)

for k=0.33
y=[0;0;k];
y1=y(1);
y2=y(2);
y3=y(3);
for n=1:N
A=[0 1 0;0 0 1;(-y(3)/2) 0 0];
k1=A*y;
k2=A*(y+(h/2)*k1);
k3=A*(y+(h/2)*k2);
k4=A*(y+h*k3);
y=y+(h/6)*(k1+2*k2+2*k3+k4);
y1(n+1)=y(1);
y2(n+1)=y(2);
y3(n+1)=y(3);
end
end
t=[t0:h:tN];
bigmatrix=[t.',y1.',y2.',y3.']
figure(1)
hold on
grid on
plot(y2, t,'b')
xlabel('f''(\eta)=u/U')
ylabel('\eta')
title ('BLASIUS BOUNDARY LAYER PROFILE')
legend('f(\eta)')
hold off
figure(2)
hold on
grid on
plot(t,y1,'b')
plot(t,y2,'r')
plot(t,y3,'g')
xlabel('\eta')
ylabel('Stream Functions')
legend('f1','f2','f3')
hold off