The efficient calculation of turbulent boundary layers

A simplified approach to the computation of turbulent boundary layers (TBL) by implicit-difference methods is developed and demonstrated. It is shown that the viscous sublayer can be neglected when integrating the TBL equations if the boundary conditions near the wall are appropriately modified. Logarithmic coordinates are introduced to improve the accuracy of the difference formulas. A number of numerical examples are calculated, and the results and computation times are compared in graphs and tables with those of the transformation of Cebeci and Smith (1968), which integrates the sublayer. In the case of the TBL on a plane surface, time savings of 56 and 65 percent are achieved for Reynolds numbers of 22,000 and 240,000, respectively.