A thermal boundary layer in a reversing flow

Abstract

Conventional boundary-layer theory cannot be applied when the fluid velocity outside the layer changes direction, and the leading edge of a finite body changes ends. In this paper an approximate method for examining the details of the boundary layer during a single flow reversal (occurring at t = 0) is described. It is based on the expectation that (a) long before reversal (t < -t₁), there will be a quasi-steady boundary layer appropriate to flow in one direction; (b) long after reversal (t > t₂) there will be a quasi-steady boundary layer appropriate to flow in the opposite direction, and (c) in between there will be a period of pure diffusion. The method is applied to a simple heat-transfer problem, in which a fluid of thermal diffusivity D flows with uniform velocity U = At over the plane y = 0; the strip 0 < x < L of the plane is maintained at temperature T₁, while the restof the plane and the fluid far away have temperature T₀. The approximate solution is compared with an exact solution of the boundary-layer equation, and is shown to give an accurate prediction of the heat transfer as a function of time. The boundary-layer approximation itself breaks down in regions of length O(D^2/3A^−1/3) near the ends of the heated strip, as usual; it also breaks down in the neighbourhood of the point x = 1/2At², t > 0, at which the influence of the new leading edge is first felt after flow reversal. In a solution of the full equation, this region is examined in detail, and boundary-layer theory is shown to be sufficiently accurate for the calculation of heat transfer.