Department of Aerospace Engineering @ METU

AEE305 Numerical Methods

Fall 2022-2023
HW#2

The temperature distribution in a laminar boundary layer over a flat plate is governed by
the following 2nd -order ODE
d2 T dT
2
+ βη 2 =0
dη dη
q
V∞
where η is a similarity transformation variable which is given by η = 2νx y. β is given
1
√
by β(x) = 23/2 Cf Re P r in which Re is the Reynolds number, Re = LV∞ /ν, L is the
√
length of the flat plate, Cf is the local friction coefficient, Cf = 0.664 Rex , Rex is the
local Reynolds number, Rex = xV∞ /ν, ν is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid and P r is
the Prandtl number, P r = ν/α, α being the thermal diffusivity of the fluid. In all these
relations x is the coordinate measured from the plate leading edge, y is the coordinate
measured from the plate surface in the normal direction.
The boundary conditions for the heat transfer problem are

T = Tw at η = 0
T → T∞ as η → ∞

where Tw is the wall temperature and T∞ is the undisturbed fluid (free-stream) temperature.
Take L = 1 m, V∞ = 20 m/s, T∞ = 300 K, Tw = 500 K, νair = 5.2 × 10−5 m2 /s and
P rair = 0.72.

• Solve the ODE for T (η) at x = 0.1 using the shooting method with the incomplete
RK solver for a system of ODE’s.
• Obtain solutions as a function of y, T (y), at various x-stations and plot them together.
• Plot the variation of the thermal boundary layer thickness in y along x
• Obtain solutions for various Tw values
• Obtain solutions for different fluids and discuss your findings
• Implement an adaptive stepping algorithm for a bonus.