The Effects of Small Changes of Prandtl Number and the Viscosity-Temperature Index on Skin Friction

Abstract

SummaryThe analytic simplifications in boundary-layer analysis that result from the assumptions that the Prandtl number σ and the viscosity-temperature index ω are unity make it desirable to be able to assess the effects of the departures of the actual values of these parameters from unity. In this paper only the effects on skin friction are considered. Formulae of acceptable validity and wide application are first used to produce generalised curves for these effects for given main-stream Mach numbers and wall temperature conditions for the case of zero external pressure gradient for both laminar and turbulent boundary layers (Figs. 1 and 2).A number of calculated results for the laminar boundary layer with favourable and adverse pressure gradients is then analysed (Figs. 3, 4 and 5) and it is shown that these results are consistent with the assumption that, for a given wall temperature, the effects of small changes of σ and ω on skin friction are independent of the external gradient, so that the appropriate curves of Figs. 1 and 2 apply. Where the change of a- is associated with a change of wall temperature (e.g. if the heat transfer is specified as zero) then the interaction between pressure gradient and this temperature change can be significant in its effects on skin friction for the laminar boundary layer and can only be assessed if the effects of changes of wall temperature with constant σ and ω have been separately determined for the pressure distribution considered. It is inferred that in all cases, except with large adverse pressure gradients and imminent separation, the effects of changes of ω and σ for the turbulent boundary layer are reliably predicted by the zero pressure gradient curves of Figs. 1 and 2 and the effect of any associated change of wall temperature can then be reliably inferred from the zero pressure gradient formula (equation (15)) in the absence of more specific calculations covering a range of wall temperatures.