Department Of Aerospace Engineering,

Indian Institute Of Technology Madras

AS2510:Low Speed Lab

Experiment on Boundary Layer over thin plate

Anik Bhowmick
AE20B102
April 14, 2022
Contents
1 Theory 2

2 Description of Apparatus and Procedure 4

2.1 Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Objective 5

4 Result 5

5 Calculations 6

6 Plots And Inference 7

7 Conclusion 10

List of Figures
1 Boundary Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Variation of Velocity in Boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3 Variation of Velocity in Boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4 Variation of Velocity in Boundary layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5 C15-10 Wind tunnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6 C15-25 Plate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7 Boundary Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8 Stagnation Pressure distribution inside the Boundary layer . . . . . . . . 8
9 Boundary Layer Thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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1 Theory
In the case of real viscous flow around a solid object, the velocity immediately next
to solid surface is zero and it gradually grows to free stream velocity as the distance
from the solid surface increases. The region where the velocity has non zero gradient
in the perpendicular direction is known as Boundary Layer. After certain distance
this viscous effects become so negligible that Velocity almost becomes constant in the
vertical direction. This region lies outside the boundary layer. Although there is no
sharp boundary between inviscid and viscid layer, but by plotting the velocity profile we
can roughly estimate how thick is the boundary layer.

Figure 1: Boundary Layer

Figure 2: Variation of Velocity in Boundary layer

Boundary layer is essentially responsible for the skin friction drag. Boundary layer
thickness is a function of Local Reynolds number.

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 Figure 3: Variation of Velocity in Boundary layer

Consider a thin plate and locaton x is measured from leading edge. Then Local
Reynolds number as function of x can be written as:
ρ∞ V∞ x
Rex = (1)
µ
Boundary layer thickness for laminar flow is given as:
5x
δ=√
Rex
√
δ∝ x (2)

Boundary layer thickness for turbulent flow is given as:

δ ∝ x4/5 (3)

Boundary Layer seperation

Flow separation or boundary layer separation is the detachment of a boundary layer from
a surface into a wake. Separation occurs in flow that is slowing down, i.e flow against
Adverse pressure gradient.

Figure 4: Variation of Velocity in Boundary layer

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2 Description of Apparatus and Procedure
We need two appratus for this experiment one is wind tunnel and other is Flat Plate.

2.1 Apparatus
The C15-10 is a computer controlled compact wind tunnel designed for benchtop opera-
tion. Air is drawn through the working section by a variable speed fan at the discharge
end of the tunnel providing up to 34m/s air velocity. A honeycomb flow straightener is
incorporated at the inlet, and a 9:4:1 contraction ratio which ensures an uniform airflow
through the working section.

Figure 5: C15-10 Wind tunnel

A flat plate, with a bevelled leading edge, that is mounted vertically in the working
section via the removable floor. A flattened Pitot tube, mounted on a traversing microm-
eter, allows the air velocity to be measured at different distances from the surface of the
plate. A smooth plate and artificially roughened plate (above) are included to show the
difference between laminar and turbulent boundary layers. The flexible tubing from the
Pitot tube incorporates a quick release connector.

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 Figure 6: C15-25 Plate

A pitot tube is used to measure Presure at various distance from the plate.

2.2 Procedure
ˆ First the Plate is placed inside the wind tunnel with wind velocity set at 10 m/s.

ˆ After starting the wind tunnel, some times are spent so that flow becomes almost
uniform.

ˆ Pitot tube is placed at various perpendicular distances at a fixed x location 120mm

to measure stagnation Pressure.

ˆ Using the pressure and Bernoulli’s equation we find a velocity profile. And then
using Linear regression from bestfit plot we find the boundary layer thickness which
corresponds to a velocity of 99% of free stream velocity.

3 Objective
ˆ To obtain V(y) ,i.e velocity profile.

ˆ To obtain Pressure vs vertical distance y plot.

ˆ Plot δ0.99 vs x-location.

4 Result
Table of Pressure data:

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 Pressure (mm) Absolute Pressure (Pa) y-location
-7.34 101252.959 0
-2.2 101303.418 1.8
-1.35 101311.7565 2.5
-1.15 101313.7185 3
-1.1 101314.209 3.5
-1.1 101314.209 4
-1.1 101314.209 4.5
-1.1 101314.209 5

We found the free stream Static of Air by using Bernoulli’s Equation :

1 2
ρV + Pstatic = Pstagnation (4)
2 ∞
1 1
Pstatic = 101314.209 − ρV∞2 = 101314.209 − × 1.225 × 100 = 101252.959 P a (5)
2 2

5 Calculations
Using The Bernoulli’s Equation we get the Velocities :

Y-location (mm) Velocity (u) m/s u/U

0 0 0
1.8 8.7519 0.8752
2.5 9.7304 0.9730
3 9.9467 0.9947
3.5 10 1
4 10 1
4.5 10 1
5 10 1

From Table we can see there is constant velocity from 3.5 mm onwards. So Boundary
layer thickness will be anywhere in between 2.5mm to 3.5mm. We will find it using Linear
regression Polynomial fit.

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6 Plots And Inference

Figure 7: Boundary Layer

We can see the Boundary Layer profile varying smoothly with distance. The operational
Reynolds Number for our batch is 8.1×104 . This region is mostly in the laminar or
Transitional layer. Using linear Regression polynomial fit the δ0.99 we found is:

δ0.99 = 2.74 mm (6)

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 Figure 8: Stagnation Pressure distribution inside the Boundary layer

The Above plot is the stagnation pressure distribution inside the Boundary layer. The
drop in stagnation pressure is due to high viscous losses and velocity gradient inside the
Boundary layer. As we move outside the boundary layer stagnation pressure becomes
constant and equal to the free stream stagation pressure.

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 Figure 9: Boundary Layer Thickness

The above plot shows δ0.99 is almost at constant distance from the plate. Which proves
we are probably in between the laminar and transition region. But again this experiment
has lots of error for pressure measurement. That’s why it’s quite difficult to conclude
anything firmly atleast for the boundary layer thickness.

x-location (mm) δ0.99 mm

60 3.69
70 2.90
80 3.56
90 3.01
100 2.69
110 2.68
120 2.74

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7 Conclusion
This experiment on Boundary Layer is important in analysing the viscous effects of real
flows. When a object moves in air a thin boundary layer always forms, and that brings
various different phenomena than our assumptions for inviscid flows. Boundary layer is
only responsible for the Kutta-Joukowskii condition to hold for airfoils and that in-turn
explains the cause of lift. Without Boundary layer their would be no lift generated by
airfoil, irrespective of what gives us the lift formula from pressure distribution. In our
present experiment the range of boundary layer we got is most probably for laminar
region and since we found the boundary layer thickness at a quite smaller length so we
got an almost horizontal plot instead of increasing trend.

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