Laminar flow in the entrance region of a porous-wall channel

Summary The effect of fluid injection at the walls of a two-dimensional channel on the development of flow in the entrance region of the channel has been investigated. The integral forms of the boundary layer equations for flow in the channel were set up for an injection velocity uniformly distributed along the channel walls.With an assumed polynomial of the n-th degree for the one-parameter velocity profile a solution of the above boundary layer equations was obtained by an iteration method. A closed form solution was also obtained for the case when a similar velocity profile was assumed. The agreement between the entrance region velocity profiles of the present analysis for an impermeable-walled channel and of Schlichting¹) and Bodoia and Osterle²) is found to be very good.The results of the analysis show that fluid injection at the channel walls increases the rate of the growth of the boundary layer thickness, and hence reduces considerably the entrance length required for a fully developed flow.Nomenclature h half channel thickness - L entrance length with wall-injection - L ₀ entrance length without wall-injection - p static pressure - p=p/U ₀ ² dimensionless pressure - Re=U ₀ h/ Reynolds number at inlet cross-section - u velocity in the x direction at any point in the channel - =u/U ₀ dimensionless velocity in the x direction at any point in the channel - U _av average velocity at a channel cross-section - U _c center line velocity - U ₀ inlet cross-section velocity - _c =U _c /U ₀ dimensionless center line velocity - v velocity in the y direction at any point in the channel - v ₀ constant injection velocity of fluid at the wall - v=v/v ₀ dimensionless velocity in the y direction at any point in the channel - x distance along the channel wall measured from the inlet cross-section - x=x/hRe dimensionless distance in the x direction - y distance perpendicular to the channel wall - y=y/h dimensionless distance in the y direction - thickness of the boundary layer - =/h dimensionless boundary layer thickness - =/ dimensionless distance within the boundary layer region - =v ₀ h/ injection parameter or injection Reynolds number - kinematic viscosity - 1+ie - mass density of the fluid - parameter defined in (14)