On a Mechanism of the Movement of a Separation Point

Abstract

This paper is concerned with a mechanism of the movement of a separation point on a body immersed in a viscous fluid. Unsteady motions of the body or the fluid may be considered to play an essential role in its mechanism. This paper investigates the case of a decelerating motion of the surrounding fluid, which induces an adverse pressure gradient on the body. A local solution of the unsteady boundary-layer equation is constructed near the separation point. A close examination of the skin friction shows the possibility of its movement.