Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-viscous-flow-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/2/b/ii/solution
Past exam of the viscous flow course of the University of Oxford 2023 2 b ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
In a thin boundary layer, take streamwise velocity and distance to be order one, set , and use incompressibility to set . The streamwise convective acceleration is order one, whereas its dominant viscous contribution after division by the Reynolds number is . Their dominant balance selectsWith this choice, the exact rescaled Navier-Stokes equations areThus the leading pressure is independent of . Matching it to the outer solution from part (a), evaluated near , gives , hence . The leading boundary-layer equation is thereforeThe exact surface shear stress condition rescales to . Since for all , its tangential derivative also vanishes there. The leading surface boundary conditions areMatching to the outer solution requiresThe second matching condition specifies the leading growth of , allowing a constant displacement correction. Requiring would impose an extra condition not supplied by the leading outer solution. This is the stress-driven stagnation-point boundary layer.
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