In: Mechanical Engineering
If you were asked to determine a boundary layer height for a given flow at a certain location, which method would you select (approaches may be order-of-magnitude, differential, integral, etc). Describe the reasons for your selection.
Order of magnitude analysis is the simplest to solve but just give a rough estimate of the value. The differential method is a more standard approach, which reduced a 2nd order differential equation while analysing boundary layer flow. Now the solution for this differential equation is easy for simple cases like flat plate but for more complex geometry Integral method is a better approach as it is inherently more conservitive than differential method. However, the key for the success of integral method is to use a much practical velocity profile. Considering all the advantages and disadvantages the choice would be Integral approach.