External flow

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Coin945 (talk | contribs) at 05:46, 13 April 2021 (Nominated for deletion; see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/External flow.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

In fluid mechanics, external flow is a flow that boundary layers develop freely, without constraints imposed by adjacent surfaces. Accordingly, there will always exist a region of the flow outside the boundary layer in which velocity, temperature, and/or concentration gradients are negligible. It can be defined as the flow of a fluid around a body that is completely submerged in it.

An example includes fluid motion over a flat plate (inclined or parallel to the free stream velocity) and flow over curved surfaces such as a sphere, cylinder, airfoil, or turbine blade, air flowing around an airplane and water flowing around the submarines.