Appl. Math. Lett. Vol. 10, No. 2, pp.

81{85, 1997
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Similarity Solutions of a Boundary

Layer Problem over Moving Surfaces
F. M. Allan
Laboratoire d'Analyse Numerique et EDP
UPS, Bat 425, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France

(Received May 1996; accepted August 1996)

Communicated by I. Ekeland
Abstract|In this paper, we present the idea of nonclassical similarity transformation, which
takes into account the eect of the parameter  on the boundary layer thickness, where  is the ratio
of wall velocity to the free stream velocity. The transformation is applied to the uid ow over a
moving at plate (Blasius proles).

Keywords|Nonclassical similarity transformation, Moving at plate, Similarity solution.

1. INTRODUCTION
Klemp and Acrivos [1] have derived the following similarity dierential equation for the ow of
an incompressible uid over a moving at plate:
f ( )f 00 ( ) + f 000 ( ) = 0; (1)
subject to the nonhomogeneous boundary conditions
 = 0; f = 0; f0 = ?;  = 1; f0 = 1; (2)
where f is the nondimensional stream function dened by f = ( = U1 x), and is the
p
dimensional
p stream function, U1 is the uid velocity,  is the uid kinematic viscosity,  =
y (U1 =x), and  is equal to the ratio of free stream velocity to boundary velocity.
When  = 0, the problem is reduced to the well-known problem of Blasius, Weyl [2] establish-
ing the existence and uniqueness of solutions using functional analytical methods. For   0,
Callegari and Friedman [3] and Callegari and Nachman [4] proved the existence, uniqueness, and
analyticity of the solution using analytical function theory approach. They work with the Crocco
variable formulation of the problem. For the case  > 0, Hussaini and Lakin [5] proved that a
solution exists only for , less than a critical value c . The numerical value of c was found to
be 0:3541 : : : . Also, their numerical results showed nonuniqueness of solutions for 0 <   c .
Hussaini et al. [6], worked again with the Crocco variable formulation of the problem, proved the
 Permanent address: Department of Mathematics, Birzeit University, Birzeit, P.O. Box 14 via Israel.
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81
82 F. M. Allan
nonuniqueness and analyticity of solutions for   c , and derived an upper bound of the critical
value of  which was found to be 0:46824 : : : .
In the present work, a dierent formulation of the problem is given that takes into account the
eect of the parameter  on the boundary layer thickness, which results in a modied dierential
equation. This will be accomplished in the second section. In Section 3, the eect of the new
formulation on the boundary layer thickness is discussed.
2. MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION
The ow of an incompressible uid over a semi-innite at plate is described by the dimensional
Navier-Stokes equations
@u 2
u
@x
+ v @u
@y
=  @@yu2 ; (3)
@u @v
@x
+ @y
= 0; (4)

subject to the boundary conditions

u(x; 0) = ?U1 ; v (x; 0) = 0; y ! 1; u ! U1 ; (5)
where u is the component of the velocity in the direction of the uid ow, v is the velocity in the
direction normal to u, and  is equal to the ratio of free stream velocity to the wall velocity.
To make the equations dimensionless, we follow the procedures
p of Schlichting [7]. Note at rst,
that the boundary layer thickness  is proportional to t, where t denotes the time consumed
by a particle traveling a distance x from the leading edge of the plate. For a particle outside
the boundary layer, t = (x=U1 j1 + j). We now introduce the new dimensionless coordinate
  (y= ) so that
r
=y
j1 + j U1 : (6)
2x
The equation of continuity (4) can be integrated by introducing a stream function (x; y) given
by s
(x; y) = 2j1xU 1
+ j f (); (7)

where f () denotes the dimensionless stream function. Thus, when  6= ?1, the velocity compo-
nents become
@
u= = U f 0 ();
@y
1 (8)
s
@ U1  0
v = ? @x = 2 j1 + j x (f ? f ) : (9)

Writing down the further terms of equation (3), then after simplication, the following ordinary
dierential equation will result:
f f 00 + j1 + j f 000 = 0; (10)
with the boundary conditions
f (0) = 0; f 0 (0) = ?; f 0(
1) = 1: (11)
Note that when  = 0, the problem is reduced to the Blasius case.
 Boundary Layer Problem 83
When  = ?1, then with the help of the L'Hopital's rule, one can easily verify that
lim (x; y) = U1 yf 0 (0) = U1 y;
!?1

uj = lim @ = U ;
=?1
!?1 @y
1

and
j
v =?1 = lim ? @ = 0:
!?1 @x
Thus, the solution obtained for this case agrees with the fact that far from the boundary layer,
the stream function is given by (x; y) = U1 y.
However, in the neighborhood of  = ?1, say for  = ?1 + ", where j"j  1, the dierential
equation (10) will be
"f 000 + f f 00 = 0; (12)
with the boundary conditions
f (0) = 0; f 0 (0) = 1  "; f 0(
1) = 1: (13)
When " ! 0, we get a singular perturbation problem with the distinctive feature that there is
no associated boundary layer. Indeed, letting " = 0, the following dierential equation is obtained
for the outer solution:
f f 00 = 0;

and the solution f () =  satises all boundary conditions at 0 and 1.

Further investigation leads us to the following Ansatz for the inner solution:
 
f ( ) =  + "2 h :
"

Equation (12) then implies the following equation for h:

?

h000 ( ) + " + "2 h( ) h00 ( ) = 0; (14)
where  = (="), with the boundary conditions
h(0) = 0; h0 (0) = 1; h0 ( 1) = 0:
Substituting h = h0 + "h1 + "2 h2 +


and matching, we nd that the inner solution is given
by
1 ?

f i ( ) = (1 ? ") +  2 + O "3 ; (15)
2
and the outer solution is given by

=  ? 21 "2 + O "3 :
?

f o ( ) (16)
Figures 1a and 1bpshow the solution curves of the nondimensional velocity components u =
f 0 ( ) and v  = v (U1 =(2j1 + jx)) for dierent values of ", when the two models, given by
equation (1) and equation (12) are used. It indicates that the rst model over estimates (under
estimates) u (v ) for a long range of values of . Also, it indicates that using the second model, u
and v converge to their asymptotic values more rapidly. Further investigations of the existence
and uniqueness of the solution of equation (10) will be the subject of a subsequent paper [8],
84 F. M. Allan

(a)

(b)
Figure 1. The velocity components u and v, for  = 0:05 and  = 0:01.

where it is also shown that a sharper upper bound on the critical value c , presented in [6] could
be estimated.
3. EFFECT OF  ON THE BOUNDARY LAYER THICKNESS 
In [7], the boundary layer thickness
p is dened as that distance y above the plate for which
u  U1 , and it is proportional to (x=(1 + )U1 ). Accordingly, the boundary layer thickness
is given by the formula r
x
 = e
(1 + ) U1 ;
 (17)
where e is the value that makes f 0 () = 0:99. For  = 0 (the Blasius problem), e  5:0. For our
calculations, we will compute the value of  at a xed distance x from the leading edge of the
plate so that the variation of the boundary layer thickness with the parameter  is estimated by
 Boundary Layer Problem 85
p
the variation of e with . Figure 2 is a plot of  = e =  ((1 + )U1 =x) vis. . It draws a
comparison between the results of Klemp and Acrivos and the present results. The two curves
meet when  = 0: The results for ?1   < 0 indicate that the boundary layer thickness is less
when the present model is used, and it is larger for 0 <   c : This gure also indicates that
the boundary layer thickness  increases exponentially as  ! c ; which gives, from the physical
point of view, a partial explanation for the nonexistence of solutions beyond this value.

Figure 2. The eect of the parameter  on the boundary layer thickness. The dotted
line is the old model while the continuous line is the new model.

REFERENCES
1. J.P. Klemp and A. Acrivos, A moving-wall boundary layer with reverse ow, J. Fluid Mech. 53 (1), 177{191,
(1972).
2. H. Weyl, On the dierential equation of the simplest boundary-layer problems, Ann. of Math. 43, 381{407,
(1942).
3. A.J. Callegari and M.B. Friedman, An analytical solution of a nonlinear, singular boundary value problem
in the theory of viscous uids, J. Math. Analy. Appl. 21, 510{529, (1968).
4. A.J. Callegari and A. Nachman, Some singular, nonlinear dierential equations arising in boundary layer
theory, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 64, 96{105, (1978).
5. M.Y. Hussaini and W.D. Lakin, Existence and nonuniqueness of similarity solutions of a boundary-layer
problem, Q. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 39 (1), 15{23, (1986).
6. M.Y. Hussaini, W.D. Lakin and A. Nachman, On similarity solution of a boundary layer problem with
upstream moving wall, SIAM J. Appl. Math. 7 (4), 699{709, (1987).
7. H. Schlichting, Boundary Layer Theory, McGraw-Hill, New York, (1979).
8. F. Allan, Existence and nonuniqueness of similarity solution of a boundary layer problem over a moving at
plate (in preparation).