A study of the boundary layer development over a flat plate in conditions of natural and artificial transition

Normally, the boundary layer development on the surfaceof a. solid body starts laminar and, in most situations,later becomes turbulent. The transformation process ·takesplace over a finite distance known as the ”transition zone”,through which the boundary layer characteristics undergocontinuous but significant change. The contribution of t.hetransition mode to the overall aerodynamic behavior of thebody is well recognized. This transition may occur naturallyon smooth surfaces or artificially by various means (e.g. bysurface roughening, raising freestream turbulence, trippingelement, etc.).In the present thesis, an integrated numerical code forsolving the boundary layer in two dimensional,incompressible and steady flow over a flat plate withemphasis on transition is presented. The code calculates t.heboundary layer characteristics, locates the start and theend of the transition zone and solves the turbulent boundarylayer, all with or without external pressure gradient. Thegoverning equations are transformed with the Falkner-Skantransformations into a nondimensional form which is suitablefor numerical manipulation. The equations are then solvedusing the Box-method which is an implicit andunconditionally stable finite difference method. The results