Laminar Free-Convection Wake Above a Heated Vertical Plate

Abstract

The development of momentum and energy fields in the laminar-wake region above a heated finite vertical plate is studied analytically. Detailed velocity and temperature profiles in the immediate neighborhood of the trailing edge of the plate are calculated for two Prandtl numbers by means of asymptotic series expansions. These results are then continued to the rest of the wake region by an integral solution. It is found that the spreading of the boundary layers is rather gradual.