A solution of the Navier-Stokes and energy equations illustrating the response of skin friction and temperature of an infinite plate thermometer to fluctuations in the stream velocity

Abstract

An exact solution of the Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible flow is derived under the conditions: (i) the flow is two-dimensional and is bounded by an infinite, plane, porous wall; (ii) the flow is independent of the distance parallel to the wall; (iii) the component of velocity parallel to the wall at a large distance from it fluctuates in time about a constant mean; (iv) the component of velocity normal to the wall is constant. It is found that the skin-friction fluctuations illustrate Lighthill’s (1954) theory of the behaviour of boundary layers subject to fluctuating pressure gradients. The amplitude of the skin-friction fluctuations rises with frequency, while the phase lead of the skin-friction over the main-stream-velocity fluctuation rises from zero at zero frequency to 7r/4 at very high frequencies. The velocity profile in the boundary layer fluctuates, and under certain transient conditions resembles that of a separated boundary layer, that is, a boundary layer with reverse flow close to the wall. With viscous dissipation of kinetic energy taken into account, the corresponding exact solution of the energy equation for an incompressible fluid with constant physical properties is derived under a condition of zero heat transfer between the fluid and the wall—the so-called ‘thermometer’ or ‘kinetic temperature’ problem. Whereas the velocity field consists of a mean flow and a first-harmonic fluctuation, the temperature field contains additionally a second-harmonic fluctuation. It is found that the mean temperature of the wall rises with frequency, and is ultimately proportional to the square root of the frequency. The first-harmonic fluctuation of the wall temperature lags behind the main-stream-velocity fluctuation by an amount which rises from zero at zero frequency to 1/4n at high frequencies, while the phase lag of the second-harmonic rises from zero at zero frequency but drops again to zero at high frequencies. The amplitude of the first-harmonic fluctuation tends to zero at high frequencies, whereas the amplitude of the second-harmonic fluctuation tends to a non-zero limit. Thus the residual temperature fluctuation of the wall at high frequencies has a frequency which is twice that of the fluctuating stream.