Chapter 8 : Viscous Incompressible Flows

Lecture 26 :
Maximum and minimum velocities
The quantitative description of non-dimensional velocity distribution across the channel, depicted by Eq. (26.2a), is shown
in Fig. 26.2b.
The location of maximum or minimum velocity in the channel is found out by setting =0. From Eq. (26.2a),
we can write

Setting gives
26.2b
It is interesting to note that maximum velocity for P = 1 occurs at y/h = 1 and equals to U . For P > 1, the
maximum velocity occurs at a location .
This means that with P > 1, the fluid particles attain a velocity higher than that of the moving plate at a location
somewhere below the moving plate.
For P = -1, the minimum velocity occurs, at . For P < -1, the minimum velocity occurs at a location .
This means that there occurs a back flow near the fixed plate. The values of maximum and minimum velocities can be
determined by substituting the value of y from Eq. (26.2b) into Eq. (26.2a) as

(26.2c)
FIG 26.2b - Velocity distribution of the Couette flow


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