Effect of Upstream Shear on Flow and Heat (Mass) Transfer Over a Flat Plate

A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effect of wall shear on a two-dimensional turbulent boundary layer. The shear is imparted by a moving belt, flush with the wall, translating in the flow direction. Velocity and mass transfer experiments have been performed for four surface-to-freestream velocity ratios (0, 0.38, 0.52, 0.65) with a Reynolds number based on the momentum thickness between 770 and 1776. The velocity data indicate that the location of the ‘virtual origin’ of the turbulent boundary layer ‘moves’ downstream towards the trailing edge of the belt with increasing surface velocity. The highest velocity ratio represents a case which is responsible for the removal of the inner region of the boundary layer. Mass transfer measurements downstream of the belt show the presence of a local minimum in the variation of the Stanton vs. Reynolds number for the highest velocity ratio. Downstream of this minimum, approximately 1 cm from the leading edge of the mass transfer plate, the characteristics of the turbulent boundary layer are restored and the data fall back on the empirical variation of the Stanton number with Reynolds number.