AN INVESTIGATION OF EFFECTS OF BOUNDARY LAYER THICKNESS ON A THIN FILM OF LIQUID FLOW DOWN AN INCLINED PLANE

Abstract

The motion of fluid substances can be described by the Navier-Stokes equations. These equations arise from the application of Newton's second Law of motion to a fluid. In this study, Navier-Stokes equations in two dimensions have been taken into consideration. They are then applied to an incompressible viscous fluid motion down an inclined plane with net flow. These leads to finding the boundary layer thickness and examining the effects to the velocity of the motion at various angles of inclination. Flow of viscous laminar incompressible fluid does not always flow in horizontal position but sometimes on an inclined position. This makes it necessary to investigate the flow on an inclined plane. Most solutions that have been obtained are of the flow over horizontal flat plate. Solution that has been obtained for flow over a plane flat an angle of inclination was done by an experiment involving a at photographic film being pulled up by a processing bath by rollers at an angle  to the horizontal but it is found that boundary layer thickness of the flow is obtained where there is no net flow and the angle of inclination is not varied to show the effects on the velocity of the flow. Linear and quadratic polynomials and sine function approximate velocity profiles have been obtained under initial boundary layer conditions. These velocity profiles have been used in momentum integral equation for flow over an inclined plane to get the boundary layer thickness. Boundary layer thickness is one of the parameters that is used to obtain the flow velocity down inclined plane.