Laminar Boundary Layer Problems Associated with Flow Through Turbomachines

Citation

Mager, Artur (1953) Laminar Boundary Layer Problems Associated with Flow Through Turbomachines. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/49CS-2731. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-05122003-100849

Abstract

NOTE: Text or symbols not renderable in plain ASCII are indicated by [...]. Abstract is included in .pdf document. This analysis deals with three-dimensional boundary layer flows which are of particular interest in the design of turbomachinery. By assuming only small lateral pressure gradients and applying perturbation procedure to the steady, laminar boundary layer equations of motion a set of zeroth and first order equations is found. While the zeroth order equations are just the two-dimensional ones for flow over flat plate, the first order equations retain the characteristic Blasius similarity for a family of external flows expressible by [?] (where U* [and] W* are the perturbation velocities, x [and] z are the coordinates and A [and] B are arbitrary constants). For various types of such external flows (which may or may not be rotational) boundary layer velocity distributions were found by a numerical solution. The investigation is divided into two parts, the first one dealing with boundary layer flows over plane surfaces and the second one considering such flows over surfaces with very sharply varying lateral curvature. In order to obtain solutions in the second part it was necessary to expand the appropriate equations in terms of the product of the local surface curvature and the boundary layer thickness. In addition, the effects of compressibility and rotation (of the surface) on the flows over a plane surface were quantitatively evaluated. Comparison of the present results with the more exact solutions of other investigators in certain special cases, and with the visual studies of three-dimensional boundary layer flow in cascades, indicates a fair qualitative agreement.

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