NUMERICAL COMPUTATION OF HEAT AND MOMENTUM TRANSFER IN TURBULENT FLOWS ALONG A PLATE USING LARGE TRANSVERSAL INTERVALS

Abstract

A hybrid computational method has been developed for the step-by-step calculation of both momentum and heat transfer in turbulent boundary layer flows along flat plates. Basically, the proposed procedure relies on the method of lines (MOL), which replaces a partial differential equation in two independent variables by an appropriate system of ordinary differential equations in one of these variables. This convenient transformation is accomplished by constructing a “control volume” being infinitesimal in the axial direction and finite in the transversal direction of the fluid stream. Using the customary assumptions for modellirg the turbulent diffusivity of momentum and heat for gases, the resulting system of ordinary differential equations of first order may be readily integrated utilizing a fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm. In general, for a typical boundary layer calculation, a maximum number of sixteen lines is necessary at the trailing edge of the flat plate. As a consequence, computing time and sto...