Laminar Slip Layer vs Turbulent No-Slip Layer: Change of Paradigm

A turbulent no-slip  boundary layer is uncomputable and lacks mathematical model. A troublesome concept. Modern fluid dynamics has been obsessed with the problem of tackling this problem, without success. The result is CFD which is not predictive  and thus not very useful.

DFS Direct Finite Element Simulation as a new paradigm in Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD exhibits a new basic phenomenon of

• laminar slip boundary layer 

to be compared with the basic elements identified by Prandtl as the Father of modern fluid mechanics of:

• laminar no-slip boundary layer, 
• turbulent no-slip layer.

The appearance of a laminar slip boundary is connected to the so called drag crisis occurring in bluff body slightly viscous flow such as air and water at a Reynolds number $Re\approx 500.000$ with the drag of a bluff body drastically dropping beyond $500.000$. 

The reduction is the result of delayed separation with reduced wake as an effect of a shift from a laminar no-slip boundary layer, which trips the flow to early separation,  to effectively a laminar slip boundary layer, which allows a different form of separation as 3d rotational slip separation without tripping.

The appearance of a turbulent no-slip layer is typically artificially induced in experiments through a transversal ribbon/strip attached to the body thus effectively changing the shape of the body, which trips the flow into separation and turbulent wake. The idea is that this way force the experiment to fit with a preconceived notion by Prandtl of a turbulent no-slip boundary layer, but this is against the most basic principle of science to fit theory to observation and not the other way around.    

The result of using an effective laminar slip boundary condition without any artificial tripping, is that fluid flow beyond the drag crisis is computable by DFS because impossible computational resolution of thin turbulent boundary layers required in Prandtl CFD,  is no longer needed. A non-computable turbulent no-slip boundary is thus replaced by a computable laminar slip layer. 

DFS shows to accurately predict fluid flow beyond the drag crisis by computing best possible turbulent solutions of Euler's equations as first principle physics without parameters with slip as wall model and a turbulence model as emergent from computation. This makes CFD computable from being uncomputable to all Prandtl followers, and thus represents a veritable change of paradigm.

A key to the breakthrough is the concept of laminar slip boundary layer of a fluid which is viscous-plastic with fluid particles sliding along a smooth wall with skin friction coefficient of size 0.001 at drag crisis and decreasing beyond. 

DFS shows that slightly viscous flow is not Newtonian with a constant (small) viscosity since the emergent turbulence model in DFS does not reflect a constant viscosity, nor does the viscosity-plastic slip boundary condition. 

This gives perspective on the Clay Navier-Stokes problem which concerns a Newtonian fluid seemingly without relevance for slightly viscous flow as the main challenge of fluid mechanics.