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Qualitative visualization – Water channel of Ludwig Prandtl

In his famous lecture ‚Über Flüssigkeitsbewegung bei sehr kleiner Reibung‘ at the III. Internationaler Mathematiker Kongress in 1904, Ludwig Prandtl introduced the concept of the boundary layer for the first time. Along with this he also described the experimental set-up of his water channel and presented photographs of vortices behind sharp edges, a curved vane and around a circular cylinder, taken after the water has been set in motion by means of a paddle wheel.

  • Prandtl, L., Über Flüssigkeitsbewegung bei sehr kleiner Reibung. Verhandlungen des III. Internationalen Mathematiker Kongresses, Heidelberg 1904, pp. 484 – 491.

    as reprint, pp. 15-22 in:
    Vier Abhandlungen zur Hydrodynamik und Aerodynamik: (Flüssigkeit mit kleiner Reibung; Tragflügeltheorie, I. und II. Mitteilung; Schraubenpropeller mit geringstem Energieverlust), Prandtl, L. & Betz, A.​ (2010) Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen. 
    https://doi.org/10.17875/gup2010-106

    Download from https://publications.goettingen-research-online.de/handle/2/14245
    The description of the experiments in the water channel can be found on pages 21-22 and the photographs of the flow visualizations on page 115 of the reprint.

During the Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture given by Ludwig Prandtl in 1927 in London he illustrates the flow phenomena discussed by him by photographs taken at the visualization of unsteady flows in different water channels since 1904.

  • Prandtl, L., The Generation of Vortices in Fluids of Small Viscosity (Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture 1927). Roy. Aeron. Soc. Bd. XXXI, p 720 -743;
    Z. Flugtechn. Motorl. 18. Jg, pp. 489-496.
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-11836-8_61
     

Sketch of Prandtl's water channel as used by DLR’s School_Lab in Göttingen and for the visualization of Fig. 1.2 and the vector map of Fig. 1.4 presented in the book.

DLR’s School_Lab provides some further information about Prandtl's water channel (in German):

Contents provided by Juergen Kompenhans, 2024-05-03