Why Prandtl Was Wrong 1

Prandtl initating modern fluid mecahnics in 1904: A very satisfactory explanation of the physical process in the boundary layer between a fluid and a solid body could be obtained by the hypothesis of an adhesion of the fluid to the walls, that is, by the hypothesis of a zero relative velocity between fluid and wall (no-slip).

Ludwig Prandtl is named the father of modern fluid mechanics because he discovered the boundary layer of a slightly viscous fluid flowing around a solid body, like air flowing around a moving car or airplane, as a thin layer where the fluid velocity rapidly changes from the free flow velocity away from the body to that of the body surface as an expression of a no-slip boundary condition.

Prandtl claimed that the that turbulent flow in the aft of a body results from separation of turbulent boundary layer away from the body surface into the free flow.

This has become the mantra of modern fluid mechanics: The truth of slightly viscous fluid flow is to be found in thin boundary layers. Both drag and lift of a body moving through a fluid are effects of a no-slip boundary condition creating a thin boundary layer.

In a sequence of posts we shall show that Prandtl was wrong: Drag and lift do not originate from a thin no-slip boundary layer.

But how can one show that Prandtl was wrong? Something to reflect upon a rainy summer day.

Hint 1: Suppose you observe the same drag and lift with the boundary layers eliminated. Can you then be sure that drag and lift do not originate from boundary layers? Yes, you probably say. But how to "eliminate" the boundary layers?

Hint 2: Browse: Dr Faustus of Modern Physics