Governing Equations

  Boundary layer equations:

• Partial Differential Equations:

  

• Boundary Conditions:

  

  with U(x) the known potential flow velocity just above the boundary layer.
• Initial condition:

  u(-x₀,0) = 0

  with x=-x₀ the known location of the stagnation point.

Advantages of a vorticity formulation:

• The pressure gradient does not need to be extracted from U(x). No consistency problems either.
• Boundary conditions on the vorticity can be applied directly.
• Almost unavoidable in 2nd-order boundary-layer theory.

10/16/01 0:20:25 10/16/01 0:45:10