SKIN FRICTION AND VELOCITY PROFILE FAMILY FOR COMPRESSIBLE TURBULENT BOUNDARY-LAYERS

The paper presents a general approach to constructing mean velocity pr ofiles for compressible turbulent boundary layers with isothermal or a diabatic walls. The theory is based on a density-weighted transformati on that allows the extension of the incompressible similarity laws of the wall to the compressible regions. The velocity profile family is c ompared to a range of experimental data, and excellent agreement is ob tained. A self-consistent skin friction law, which satisfies the propo sed velocity profile family, is derived and compared with the well-kno wn Van Driest II theory for boundary layers in zero pressure gradient. The results are found to be at least as good as those obtained by usi ng the Van Driest II transformation.