Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
Considerable research effort has been devoted to the experimental and theoretical study of turbulent boundary layers on flat plates. However, relatively little research has been done on turbulent boundary layers in the presence of transverse curvature. In this paper transverse curvature denotes curvature in a plane normal to the flow direction as shown in Fig. 1. In particular, flow along the outside of cylinders is considered.
In most of the experimental and theoretical investigations of the cylindrical boundary layers (see for example references 1 to 4) the effect of transverse curvature on the velocity profile, especially on the power law, was not considered. Exceptions to the above statement are Rao's inference on the velocity profile and Bonsignore's prediction of change in the index of the power law.