The Boundary Layer and Skin Friction for a Body of Revolution at Large Reynold's Numbers

Citation

Moore, Norton Bartlett (1934) The Boundary Layer and Skin Friction for a Body of Revolution at Large Reynold's Numbers. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/JZW9-JZ15. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-02072006-152924

Abstract

Clark Millikan’s work on the boundary layer and skin friction for a figure of revolution is extended, with particular reference to the completely turbulent boundary layer, in two ways:

a) His expressions for the completely turbulent regime are generalized so as to hold for the assumption of a one n-th power law for the velocity distribution in the boundary layer;

b) Von Karman’s logarithmic velocity distribution is introduced into the analysis.

b){sic} leads to a practical method by which the drag of a full-scale dirigible can be predicted from wind tunnel tests.

Comparison of the theory as gotten from b) with experiments leads to the conclusion that the present theory can be safely used to predict drags at large Reynolds’ numbers, whereas drags predicted on the basis of a one seventh power law may be from 20% to 30% low.

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