Boundary Layer Flow Visualization

Evaluated boundary layer growth over a flat plate using commercial computational fluid dynamic simulations and compared results with theoretical profiles.

Type
Academic
Timeframe
Mar 2021
 - 
Apr 2021
Status
Complete

Overview

This class project involved air flowing over a flat, horizontal plate to determine and simulate the behavior of the boundary layer using computational fluid dynamics (ANSYS Fluent).

Goals

  • Perform boundary layer analysis for laminar and turbulent flows
  • Calculate a theoretical solution to boundary layer flow
  • Generate results and plots from ANSYS Fluent including velocity, pressure, and skin friction coefficient
Project mesh setup and for Fluent Flow project.
Project mesh setup and for Fluent Flow project.

How Was It Made?

Laminar velocity profiles along the flat plate.
Laminar velocity profiles along the flat plate.
  • Utilized commercial CFD (ANSYS Fluent) to run simulated experiments of fluid flow over a flat plate
  • Created a staged, refined 2D mesh geometry to ensure solution accuracy along the boundary layer

Results

Outlet velocity profiles plot.
Outlet velocity profiles plot.
  • Used MATLAB to generate velocity profile and skin friction coefficient plots
  • Wrote a technical project paper overviewing the experimental setup, results, and discussion
  • View my full project submission here.
Technical Report