Investigation of a Method for the General Analysis of Time Dependent Two-Dimensional Laminar Boundary Layers

A method is given for the analysis of time dependent two-dimensional incompressible laminar boundary layers. The technique is a combination of the method of weighted residuals and the method of lines, and reduces the boundary-layer equations to an Nth order approximation in terms of a system of ordinary differential equations. The method is demonstrated by solving the transient flow over a semi-infinite flat plate and the results are compared with known asymptotic solutions. For a third approximation, the steady-state skin friction coefficient given by the present method agrees with the Blasius solution within 0.1 percent.