Boundary Layer - Naval Architecture

Naval Architecture

Many of the principles that apply to aircraft also apply to ships, submarines, and offshore platforms.

For ships, unlike aircraft, one deals with incompressible flows, where change in water density is negligible (a pressure rises close to 1000kPa leads to a change of only 2–3 kg/m3). This field of fluid dynamics is called hydrodynamics. A ship engineer designs for hydrodynamics first, and for strength only later. The boundary layer development, breakdown, and separation become critical because the high viscosity of water produces high shear stresses. Another consequence of high viscosity is the slip stream effect, in which the ship moves like a spear tearing through a sponge at high velocity.

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