Approximate Calculation of the Laminar Boundary Layer

The steady two-dimensional flow of viscous incompressible fluid in the boundary layer along a solid boundary, which is governed by Prandtl's approximation to the full equations of motion, presents a problem which in general is as intractable as any in applied mathematics. The problem, however, has such an immediate and necessary application that approximate methods of varying accuracy which go beyond the formal processes of expansions in series and so on, have been devised for the rapid calculation of the principal characteristics of the laminar boundary-layer, the variation of pressure along the surface being known. Such methods usually represent approximately the boundary-layer velocity distribution at any point by one of a known family of distributions whose spacing along the surface is determined by some means, often by the use of Kármán's momentum equation.