The unit normal pointing out of the fluid at its lower boundary is . Since impermeability gives , also , and the tangential viscous traction exerted on the fluid is . The cilia do positive work at rate , so
For positive downstream velocity this requires , as expected when the wall-driven flow slows away from the cilia. The wall velocity is not prescribed independently; the driving condition prescribes power.
In a laminar boundary layer, momentum diffuses over a thickness during the downstream advection time , giving . The wall power condition gives . With these balances the downstream Reynolds number grows and tends to zero. This explains the thin layer for large within the laminar approximation. Pressure is uniform across it and has no imposed streamwise gradient because the outer fluid is at rest. The two-dimensional boundary-layer equations are
Choose the scales to satisfy the balances exactly:
The stream function , , enforces continuity equation and gives
Thus the advective term is , while . Hence
Impermeability, imposed wall power and matching to resting outer fluid give
A regular decaying profile also has and finite positive ; no arbitrary additional wall value for should be imposed.
The volume flux per unit span is , so continuity equation gives : outer fluid is entrained toward the wall. In the physical positive decaying similarity profile, and . To justify monotonicity, by the power condition; if first crossed zero with , the equation would give , after which cannot cross back and could not decay to zero. Therefore , and the velocity formula gives for . Consequently the transverse velocity is negative throughout that physical layer, and zero at the wall. This pointwise conclusion uses the positive decaying branch; the flux argument already establishes entrainment of the exterior.
With zero imposed pressure gradient, the two-dimensional boundary-layer equations are
Introduce the stream function by
The boundary conditions are
The additive constant in may be chosen so that .