The Turbulent Flow at the Plane of Symmetry of a Collateral Three-Dimensional Boundary Layer

Abstract

Momentum integral equations for the turbulent flow at the plane of symmetry of a three-dimensional boundary layer are rigorously derived. The use of orthogonol curvilinear coordinates allows a simple physical interpretation to be given to the terms of the resulting equations. Evaluation and comparison are made between the derived results and earlier works in Cartesian sets and ambiguities are discussed. Results of an experimental program are reported for the case of a plane of symmetry flow in a collateral three-dimensional turbulent boundary layer wherein four different momentum integral equations are examined in predicting boundary-layer growth. As an aside, two common variations of shape parameter equations were also tested to determine their adequacy in application to this case.