A Closed Formula for the Drag of a Flat Plate with Transition in the Absence of a Pressure Gradient

Abstract

Most University students of fluid mechanics are familiar with the problem of the evaluation of the skin friction drag of a flat plate in the absence of a pressure gradient: transition is specified, usually by the free stream velocity and the transition point, or directly by the transition Reynolds number. The solution is normally obtained numerically: so far as the writer is aware, the processes used have not been written down in closed analytical form, though to do so presents no difficulty.