Journal of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics

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Managing Editor: H. Altenbach
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ZAMM Z. Angew. Math. Mech. 91, No. 8, 681 686 (2011) / DOI 10.1002/zamm.201000197
Steady ow along a Rankine half-body
L. J. Crane and A. G. McVeigh

Institute for Numerical Computation and Analysis, 79 Dame Court, Dublin 2, Ireland
Received 30 October 2010, revised 11 January 2010, accepted 14 January 2011
Published online 23 February 2011
Key words Axisymmetric boundary layer, asymptotic series, Rankine half-body, Bingham number.
This paper deals with the net frictional drag on a Rankine half-body in uniform axisymmetric ow. Asymptotic series
solutions for the non-dimensional drag coefcient are developed for ow close to the forward stagnation point and down-
stream, while for the intermediate region, the solution is obtained by employing interpolating polynomials. Consideration
is given to ows having Reynolds number of 100 and 1000. The results are compared to those for a slender uniform cylin-
der obtained by Seban and Bond [1], Glauert and Lighthill [2], and Curle [3].
c 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
1 Introduction
Many investigators [16], in determining the shear stress on a circular at-faced cylinder in axisymmetric ow, assumed
that the cylinder axis was parallel to the direction of ow and that the boundary layer was of zero thickness at the leading
edge. This presupposes that the uid is sucked inside the cylinder; the precise suction strength being such as to maintain
the streamlines of the ow parallel to the generators of the cylinder body.
Clearly, the assumption that the ow is parallel to the surface of the uniform cylinder is not realistic in practice; in this
work, the ow past a blunt-nosed body of revolution is considered; in particular, the Rankine half-body [9].
Such a body is generated by the stagnation stream surface of a potential ow resulting from the superposition of a uni-
form ow and a point source; this body is approximately spherical near the stagnation point, while at large axial distances,
the surface approaches a cylindrical shape.
2 Potential ow on a Rankine half-body
It is easily shown that the equation of the Rankine half-body can be expressed as [12]:
R =
r
a
=
1
2
sec
_
1
2

_
, (2.1)
where (r, ) are spherical polar coordinates centered on the source of strength a
2
U
0
, where a is the radius of the cylinder
which is approached at large axial distances and U
0
is the undisturbed ow velocity; the position of the stagnation point, s,
is at (a/2, 0). The Rankine half-body is then a stream surface of this potential ow.
The geometric conguration of this body is illustrated in Fig. 1.
The velocity components of the potential ow past a Rankine half-body are:
u
r
= U
0
sin
2
(/2) , u

= U
0
sin(). (2.2)
These constitute, for ow past a Rankine half-body at large Reynolds numbers, the velocity at the outer edge of the
boundary layer.
3 The boundary layer equations in the region of the stagnation point
Following Rosenhead [10], for ow in the neighbourhood of the forward stagnation point, where the principal radii of
curvature of the body are large in comparison with the boundary layer thickness, the following equations in curvilinear
coordinates, (x, z), hold:
u
u
x
+ w
u
z
= U
dU
dx
+

2
u
z
2
, (3.1)

Corresponding author E-mail: gotham1961@gmail.com, Phone: +353 87 919 5224, Fax: +353 42 9372462
c 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
682 L. J. Crane and A. G. McVeigh: Steady ow along a Rankine half-body
m
s
a
(a/2, 0)

r
ro
UO
x
p
m
R
S
a/2
Fig. 1 Rankine half-body: spherical polar coordinates.

x
(r
0
u) +

z
(r
0
w) = 0, (3.2)
where x is the arc length measured along the meridian curve from the stagnation point, s; r
0
is the perpendicular distance
from the axis to a point, p, on the surface and z is the distance normal to the meridian curve.
Here, (u, w) are the corresponding velocity components, is the kinematic viscosity and U is the potential velocity at a
point just outside the boundary layer.
A particular stream function, , is dened such that the continuity equation, (3.2), is automatically satised:
u =

z
, w =
1
r
0

x
(r
0
) . (3.3)
Using (3.3), the momentum equation (3.1) is re-cast:

xz

_

x
+

r
0
dr
0
dx
_

2

z
2
= U
dU
dx
+

3

z
3
(3.4)
having boundary conditions:
= 0,

z
= 0 when z = 0, and

z
U as z . (3.5)
Now, for a symmetrical blunt-nosed body of revolution:
r
0
= a
1
_
+

n=1

2n+1

2n+1
_
(3.6)
and, at the edge of the boundary layer:
U = 2U
0
_
+

n=1

2n+1

2n+1
_
(3.7)
where = x/a.
This suggests that may be expanded as:
=
_
aU
0
_
f
1
() + 2
3

3
f
3
() + 3
5

5
f
5
() + 4
7

7
f
7
() +

(3.8)
c 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.zamm-journal.org
ZAMM Z. Angew. Math. Mech. 91, No. 8 (2011) / www.zamm-journal.org 683
where f
n
(0) = f

n
(0) = 0 and f

2n1
() 1/n
and where
= 2z
_
U
0
a
. (3.9)
Details of the values of f

2n1
(0) were obtained by Fr ossling [7] and Scholkemeier [8] and are given in the Appendix.
4 Drag near the stagnation point
The net frictional drag, D, from the stagnation point to a prescribed value of , is determined by integration of the wall
shear stress, , in the direction of the free-stream. Specically:
D = 2a
2
_

0
R
0
cos()d (4.1)
where R
0
= r
0
/a and is the angle between the shear stress, , and the undisturbed free-stream velocity, U
0
.
When the values of the parameters
2n+1
and
2n+1
are known for a given surface of revolution then, following
Fr ossling [7]:
= 4U
3/2
0
(a)
1/2

_
f

1
(0) + 2
3

2
f

3
(0) + 3
5

4
f

5
(0) + 4
7

6
f

7
(0) +

. (4.2)
Now, since it is easily shown that, for the Rankine half-body, R
0
= tanh(), then:

1
= 1,
3
=
1
3
,
5
=
2
15
,
7
=
17
315
. (4.3)
Additionally, using (2.2), the resultant velocity on the body surface may be obtained, and using the identity:
= 2 arcsin [tanh()] (4.4)
leads to the following:

3
=
17
24
,
5
=
841
1920
,
7
=
76817
322560
. (4.5)
From (4.3) and (4.5), the following numerical values are derived (see Appendix):
f

1
(0) = 0.928, f

3
(0) = 1.068, f

5
(0) = 1.133, f

7
(0) = 1.213. (4.6)
Now, the cos()-term in (4.1) can be expressed as:
cos() =
3
2

47
48

3
+
649
1280

52231
645120

7
+ O(
9
). (4.7)
Therefore, the drag, D, given by (4.1) is, to order O(
11
):
D = 8aU
0
(R
a
)
1/2
_

0
_
1.392
3
3.642
5
+ 5.430
7
5.927
9
_
d (4.8)
where R
a
is the Reynolds number dened by R
a
= U
0
a/.
It is convenient now, to introduce a change of variables from to , where:
= ln
_
4x
U
0
a
2
_
. (4.9)
Finally, introducing the non-dimensional form of the drag, D, in (4.1) by

D, where:

D =
2D
U
2
0
a
2
(4.10)
www.zamm-journal.org c 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
684 L. J. Crane and A. G. McVeigh: Steady ow along a Rankine half-body
gives, upon integrating:

D = 0.02175(R
a
)
7/2
exp(4) 0.00237(R
a
)
11/2
exp(6) + 0.00017(R
a
)
15/2
exp(8)
0.00009(R
a
)
19/2
exp(10) + O[exp(12)] . (4.11)
5 Drag at large axial distances
Further downstream, the surface is cylindrical and the boundary layer thickness becomes very large in comparison to the
cylinder radius. The net frictional drag along the cylinder from 0 to x is given by D, where:
D = 2a
_
x
0
dx. (5.1)
Investigating downstream laminar ow along a slender cylinder, Glauert and Lighthill [2] derived an asymptotic series
approximation to the skin friction, , in terms of inverse powers of . Representing the skin friction by the non-dimensional
Bingham number, Bi = a/U
0
, they deduced that the shear stress decays logarithmically with distance; specically, to
order O(
4
):
Bi =
2

+
2

2
+
2
_
()
2

1
4

2
2 ln(2)

3
(5.2)
where = 0.5772 is Eulers constant.
From (5.2), the downstream drag (5.1) is non-dimensionalised and is denoted by

D, where:

D =
_

[exp()Bi] d. (5.3)
Consequently, the approximation to the drag coefcient for downstream ow is found to be:

D = 2 exp()
_
1

+
(1 + )

2
+

2
+ 2 [ + 1 ln(2)]
2
/4

3
+ O
_
1

4
__
. (5.4)
6 Results and conclusions
Having obtained the drag corresponding to small and large axial distances, the function, ln

D, is considered on 8 8
specically for the Reynolds numbers, R
a
= 100 and R
a
= 1000. The values for ln

D relating to mid-range axial distances
are obtained via an interpolating polynomial function that aligns strongly to prescribed data points given by (4.11) and
(5.4).
This interpolation, being strictly monotonic, is valid on 6 4 for R
a
= 100, while for R
a
= 1000, the range of
interpolation is 9 4. These results are illustrated in Fig. 2, where it is clear that

D increases with R
a
for 1.
In fact, it is readily shown that the relative difference in ln

D diminishes rapidly from 1/3 to zero on 8 1.
Investigating axisymmetric ow close to the windward-face of a cylinder, Curle [3] extended the Seban and Bond [1]
expansion, obtaining the asymptotic series for the skin friction up to 20 terms for 3/2.
The plot for this series and its corresponding interpolation is given in Fig. 3, where, in addition, the curves representing
the drag on the Rankine half-body are shown. As clearly illustrated, these plots converge as grows; merging smoothly at
= 1.
Now, since the Curle series expansion corresponds to a at-faced prole, it can be deduced that the drag coefcient,

D, is independent of both the Reynolds number and the nose conguration for the value x/U
0
a
2
> 0.7; whereas, for
x/U
0
a
2
< 0.1,

D is fully dependent on both conditions. In other words, provided the boundary layer thickness is greater
than about three-quarters the radius, then the ow is not inuenced by the presence of the blunt nose and the value of the
Reynolds number.
It is interesting to contrast these parameter values to that of interior channel ow, where the velocity distribution becomes
parabolic over the channel width at large axial distances; in this specic instance, x/U
0
a
2
= 0.16 [11].
For the intermediate region corresponding to 1 1, the drag is independent of R
a
but is, however, inuenced by
the presence of the nose.
c 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.zamm-journal.org
ZAMM Z. Angew. Math. Mech. 91, No. 8 (2011) / www.zamm-journal.org 685

ln D

Ra=100
Ra=1,000

ln D

Ra = 100
Ra = 1,000
Curle series
Curle interpolation: --------
Fig. 2 Reynolds number effect. Fig. 3 Curle series interpolation.
7 Appendix
A set of ordinary differential equations for the functions f
n
() is constructed, subject to the boundary conditions: f
n
(0) =
f

n
(0) = 0 and f

2n1
1/n as .
The rst two differential equations are:
f

1
+ f
1
f

1
+
1
2
_
1 f
2
1
_
= 0, (7.1)
f

3
+ f
1
f

3
2f

1
f

3
+ 2f

1
f
3
+ (
3
/2
3
) f
1
f

1
+ 1 = 0, (7.2)
while the equations for f
5
and f
7
, given by Rosenhead [10], are prohibitively lengthy and therefore, not given here.
The following values were obtained by Fr ossling [7] on solution of the equations in f
1
, f
3
, and f
5
:
f

1
(0) 0.928, (7.3)
f

3
(0) 1.048 + 0.045
_

3
_
, (7.4)
f

5
(0) 0.905 + 0.051
_

5
_
+ 0.177
_

2
3

5
_
+ 0.029
_

5
_
0.024
_

2
3

5
_
, (7.5)
and Scholkemeier [8] obtained the solution to the f
7
-equation:
f

7
(0) 0.821 + 0.050
_

7
_
0.020
_

2
3

7
_
+ 0.004
_

3
3

7
_
+ 0.041
_

7
_
+ 0.274
_

7
_
+ 0.015
_

3
3

7
_
0.047
_

7
_
+ 0.010
_

2
3

7
_
+ 0.013
_

7
_
. (7.6)
References
[1] R. A. Seban and R. Bond, Skin-friction and heat-transfer characteristics of a laminar boundary layer on a cylinder in axial incom-
pressible ow, J. Aeronaut. Sci. 18, 671675 (1951).
[2] M. B. Glauert and M. J. Lighthill, The axisymmetric boundary layer on a long thin cylinder, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 230, 188203
(1955).
[3] S. N. Curle, Calculation of the axisymmetric boundary layer on a long thin cylinder, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 372, 555564 (1980).
[4] H. R. Kelly, A note on the laminar boundary layer on a cylinder in axial compressible ow, J. Aeronaut. Sci. 21, 634 (1954).
[5] O. R. Tutty, W. G. Price, and A. T. Parsons, Boundary layer ow on a long thin cylinder, Phys. Fluids 14(2), 628637 (2002).
[6] L. J. Crane and A. G. McVeigh, Accelerated slip ow past a cylinder, Z. Angew. Math. Phys., DOI: 10.1007/s00033-010-0094-z,
(2010).
www.zamm-journal.org c 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
686 L. J. Crane and A. G. McVeigh: Steady ow along a Rankine half-body
[7] N. Fr ossling, Verdunstung, W arme ubergang und Geschwindigkeitsverteilung bei zweidimensionaler und rotationssymmetrischer
laminarer Grenzschichtstr omung, Lunds Univ. Acta, Avd. 2,

Arsskr. 36(4), 132 (1940); translated as: Evaporation, heat transfer
and velocity distribution in two-dimensional and rotationally symmetrical laminar boundary-layer ow, Tech. Memor. Nat. Adv.
Comm. Aero., Wash. No. 1432, (1940).
[8] F. W. Scholkemeier, L osung der Prandtlschen Grenzschichtdifferentialgleichungen mit Hilfe von Potenzreihenentwicklungen,
Arch. Math., Karlsruhe 1, 270277 (1949).
[9] W. J. MacQuorn Rankine, Summary of the properties of certain streamlines, Philos. Mag. Ser. 4 28, 189189, 282288 (1864).
[10] L. Rosenhead, Fluid Motion Memoirs: Laminar Boundary Layers, edited by L. Rosenhead (Oxford University Press, Oxford,
1963) pp. 417426.
[11] H. Schlichting, Boundary Layer Theory (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1962) pp. 168171.
[12] G. K. Batchelor, An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics (Cambridge University Press, New York, 1967) p. 461.
Book Review
Ciro DApice, Simone G ottlich, Michael Herty, and
Benedetto Piccoli, Modeling, Simulation, and Optimization
of Supply Chains. A Continuous Approach.
Cambridge University Press, SIAM SIAM Philadelphia
2010, GBP 42.00, USD 69.00, ISBN 978-0-898717-00-6
Continuum models for supply chains are differential equa-
tions on networks, where the network is described by a
directed graph. Along the network different materials and
products are transported. In the continuum approach, only
the density of transported materials and products are con-
sidered. The transport is restricted by limited capacities
along each edge, and on the vertices of the graph the out-
coming ow cannot exceed the incoming ow (or is equal
if there is no capacity of the nodes in the graph). The basic
model on the edges is the conservation law
t
+
x
f() =
0 with f() = min{V , }, where nonnegative functions
for the velocity V and and for the capacity describe the
network properties.
Together, this allows for the analysis and the simulation
of supply chains on networks by the application of the anal-
ysis and the simulation techniques for scalar conservation
laws. The book starts with a brief survey on known results
for scalar conservation laws in a single interval. Then, it is
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uum approach leads to a simplied ODE model for the load
of every edge in the network. Then, the full model, a cou-
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that the model is well-posed and the existence of weak so-
lutions is proved. Finally, the basic model is extended to a
continuum-discrete approach.
The last two chapters study now the application of the
continuum supply chain model to control and optimization
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computation of an optimal design of a network in order
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the setup of a general adjoint calculus for the transport pro-
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number of numerical experiments are presented to validate
the results of the previous chapters.
In summary this book is one contribution to the growing
eld of analytical models on graphs. Here, the analysis is
based on conservations laws, and a full mathematical anal-
ysis for this specic model is presented. The book is clearly
designed for a mathematical community. Nevertheless, in
particular the discussed control and optimization techniques
are already applied to some industrial devices and thus also
of large interest for engineering applications.
Christian Wieners, Karlsruhe
c 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.zamm-journal.org