A Brief Biography of Ludwig Prandtl

Fluid dynamics is a field with a history of more than 2000 years. Archimedes, Da Vinci, Galileo, Newton are classical pioneers of modern hydrodynamic researchers such as Bernoulli and Euler (Anderson 42). However, until the early 19th century, this problem was not fully quantified; instead, the textbook consisted of infinite tables and diagrams to show the phenomenon. When Daniel Bernoulli, Claude Navier, and George Stokes introduced mathematics in the field of fluids, new research became possible, but the research was highly theoretical and required extensive use of differential equations (Eckert 15).

The Ludwig Plant Laboratory at the University of Göttingen was the center of theoretical and mathematical aerodynamic and hydrodynamic studies from 1904 until the end of the Second World War. Prandt created the term boundary layer and established modern (mathematical) aerodynamics. After the researchers broke up after the war, the laboratory lost its dominant position. Since the Treaty of Versailles imposed severe restrictions on the manufacture of military purpose vehicles in Germany, German weapon manufacturers and defense forces began secretly developing tanks from the 1920s to the 1930s. As these vehicles were secretly manufactured, European allies had little knowledge of technical specifications and possibilities on the battlefield before the actual war began.

The aerodynamic boundary layer was first defined by a paper published at the Third International Mathematicians' Conference by Ludwig Prandtl held in Heidelberg, Germany on August 12, 1904. Viscosity is dominant and viscosity can be neglected in the boundary layer which produces the majority of the resistance and outside of the boundary layer without generating a solution. Critical Impact This allows you to find closed-form solutions for flows in two areas, greatly simplifying the complete Navier-Stokes equation. Since most of the heat transfer to and from the body occurs also at the boundary layer, equations can be simplified in flow fields outside the boundary layer.