Flow Separation

In thermal science courses, flow over curved objects, like cylinders or spheres are generally discussed qualitatively, followed by the presentation of numerical or experimental results for the drag coefficient, Nusselt number, and flow separation. Rarely, there is much discussion of how solutions are obtained. In this paper the flow separation is first introduced by solving the Falkner-Skan flow. The process for numerical solution of equations is presented to show that the flow separates at a plate angle of about −18°. Comparisons are drawn between this and flow over a cylinder. The non-similar boundary layer equations are then solved flow over a cylinder, using potential flow results for the velocity outside of the boundary layer. This solution shows that the flow separates at 103.5°, which is significantly more than the experimental value of 80°. Using a more realistic velocity for flow outside of the boundary layer, the numerical solution obtained predicts flow separation at an angle of 79°, which is close to the experimental results. All the solutions are obtained using spreadsheets that greatly simplify the analysis.