Entropy generation in laminar boundary layers of non-ideal fluid flows

Abstract

This paper documents a numerical study on entropy generation in zero-pressure gradient, laminar boundary layers of adiabatic non-ideal compressible fluid flows. The entropy generation is expressed in terms of dissipation coefficient $$C:\mathrm {d}$$ and its dependency on free-stream Mach number, fluid molecular complexity, and flow non-ideality is investigated systematically by means of a boundary layer code extended to treat fluids modeled with arbitrary equations of state. The results of the study show that the trend of dissipation coefficient follows that of an incompressible flow for complex fluid molecules like siloxanes in all thermodynamic and flow conditions. For simpler fluids like CO$$:2$$ the trend becomes inversely proportional to the free-stream Mach number and the $$C:\mathrm {d}$$ value can significantly reduce in the non-ideal flow regime, where strong thermo-physical property gradients occur near the wall.