Uniform flow over a flat plate with an irregular leading edge is investigated. A similarity reduction to Blasius’s equation for the three-dimensional flow is obtained in the context of boundary layer theory. Now, however, the similarity variable is y/Δ(x,z), where x is the streamwise coordinate, y is the plate-normal coordinate, z is the spanwise coordinate, and Δ(x,z) is the planform distribution function which takes into account the position of the irregular leading edge. The wall shear stress and also the boundary layer, displacement, and momentum thicknesses are proportional to this common distribution function.

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© 1997 American Institute of Physics.
1997
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