= Paul Richard Heinrich Blasius
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= Heinrich Blasius
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<Heinrich Blasius> developed a <similarity solution> for the thin <boundary layer> along a flat plate. Even when <viscosity> is small, a <fluid> must satisfy the <no-slip boundary condition> at the surface, so an <inviscid flow> approximation cannot describe the whole region. Balancing downstream <advection> against transverse diffusion of <momentum> gives the <boundary layer> scale $\delta(x)\sim\sqrt{\nu x/U}$, where $\nu$ is <kinematic viscosity>, $U$ the external <speed>, and $x$ the downstream distance from the plate's leading edge. The <similarity solution> reduces the developing <boundary layer> profile to a function of one scaled coordinate.<Grenzschichten in Flüssigkeiten mit kleiner Reibung by Heinrich Blasius>[1908 paper; NACA-TM-1256 translation, section I, flat plate and similarity transformation; scaling expressed here in modern notation]{ref}
\Image[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Redirect/file/Heinrich%20Blasius.%20Fr%C3%BChe%20Zeit%20an%20der%20Ingenieurschule.png?width=250]
{title=Portrait of <Paul Richard Heinrich Blasius>}
{description=Unknown photographer; Heinrich Blasius at the engineering school, circa 1920; source HAW Hamburg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-anon-expired[Commons PD-anon-expired: US publication before 1931 and anonymous-work terms of 95 years or fewer], via Wikimedia Commons.}
{source=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heinrich_Blasius._Fr%C3%BChe_Zeit_an_der_Ingenieurschule.png}
{width=250}
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