Flat-Plate Blasius Solution - Lesson 4

Here we explore the most famous analytical solution for a flat plate laminar boundary layer: the Blasius solution. This is one of the most important results ever obtained on boundary layers.

You may wonder how a solution for a flat plate could be that important. Well, many geometries could be used to approximate straight segments or flat plates to perform a preliminary analysis. For example, if you look at the early stages of aviation, airplanes had extremely thin, flat wings. You can notice this by looking at two different airplanes used during the first World War: the Fokker Eindeker and the Sopwith Camel, which we know of thanks to a famous cartoon dog, Snoopy, who “flies” it to fight his archenemy, the Red Baron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this lesson you will learn how the Blasius solution was derived and how it can be used to estimate the drag on a flat plate due to the presence of a laminar boundary layer.


Alternate video link.


Here are the accompanying hand-out slides for this lesson.