Laminar Shear Layer Due to a Thin Flat Plate Oscillating With Zero Mean Velocity

Abstract

A numerical solution of the unsteady laminar boundary layer equations is described for the flow due to a semi-infinite plate, sinusoidally oscillating with zero mean velocity. The plate periodically reverses its direction of motion with no net translation. The solution treats the region intermittently occupied by the plate as a thin symmetric wake. A time-centered two-step implicit finite-difference scheme was used with upwind differencing and a variable spatial grid to obtain the numerical results. Results are presented for velocity profiles and surface shear stress as a function of position and time.