NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Department of Mechanical Engineering

ME2135 Fluid Mechanics II
Part 2 External Incompressible Viscous Flow
Tutorial 2
1. The Blasius solution for laminar boundary layer flow on a flat plate is given as numerical
results in Table 3.1 of Prof Winotos Lecture Notes p. 45:
a) Evaluate the distribution of shear stress by plotting dimensionless /w versus y/.
b) Evaluate the vertical component of velocity by plotting v/U versus y/ for Rex = 105.
c) Obtain an algebraic expression for the x component of the acceleration (ax) of a fluid
particle in the laminar boundary layer. Plot ax versus to determine the maximum x
component of acceleration at a given x.
2. A thin flat plate, L = 0.25 m long and b = 1 m wide, is installed in a water tunnel as a splitter.
The freestream speed is U = 1.75 m/s, and the velocity profile in the boundary layer is given
by the Blasius solution. The kinematic viscosity of water is 10-6 m2/s. Evaluate the momentum
thickness L and the total drag on both sides.
3. Assume laminar boundary-layer flow to estimate the drag on the
plate shown when it is placed parallel to a 7.5m/s air flow, with
kinematic viscosity = 1.5 x 10-5 m2/s. The shape of the plate is
given by x = y2/25, where x and y are in cm.
4. Assume laminar boundary-layer flow to estimate the drag (both sides) on four square plates
(each 7.5 cm x 7.5 cm) placed parallel to a 1 m/s
water flow, for the two configurations shown. Before
calculating, which configuration do you expect to
experience the lower drag? Assume that the plates
attached with string are far enough apart for wake
effects to be negligible and that the kinematic
viscosity of water is 10-6 m2/s.