The Blasius Boundary Layer

Application ID: 13911


The incompressible boundary layer on a flat plate in the absence of a pressure gradient is usually referred to as the Blasius boundary layer. The steady, laminar boundary layer developing downstream of the leading edge eventually becomes unstable to Tollmien-Schlichting waves and finally transitions to a fully turbulent boundary layer.

Due to its fundamental importance, this type of flow has become the subject of numerous studies on boundary-layer flow, stability, transition, and turbulence.

This model considers the first section of the plate where the boundary layer remains steady and laminar, and compares results from incompressible, two-dimensional, single-phase-flow simulations obtained in COMSOL Multiphysics to the Blasius similarity solution. The solutions converge ideally with respect to both mesh refinement and discretization order.

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: