On similarity solution of an unsteady laminar boundary layer along a flat plate

Abstract

A unified analysis has been made to obtain all possible similarity solutions of the steady and unsteady, forced flow, inside a boundary layer along a flat plate. Though previously, attempts were made to obtain similarity solutions of a steady boundary layer flow neglecting viscous dissipation term in the energy conservation equation but the treatments were not complete. Here we have taken account of the viscous dissipation term. In the steady case it has been shown that for a similarity solution of both velocity and temperature, there should be a relation between the undisturbed flow outside the boundary layer and the temperature of the plate. It has been shown that the similarity solution exists in the unsteady case if we neglet the viscous dissipation term in the energy equation.