The Motion of a Viscous Fluid Past an Impulsively Started Semi-infinite Flat Plate

Abstract

It is shown that by employing a suitable numerical method, the problem of determining the motion of a viscous fluid past a semi-infinite flat plate which is started impulsively from rest with constant velocity parallel to itself can be solved in terms of similarity variables. The numerical solution is compared with previous numerical and theoretical work on the problem. The final decay to the steady-state solution described by the Blasius velocity profile is exponential in character and is found to be substantially in agreement with theoretical predictions.