Thermal response of an unsteady laminar boundary layer on a flat plate due to step changes in wall temperature and in wall heat flux

The prediction of the entire time-history of the heat transfer process due either to a step change in plate surface temperature or to heat flux is studied for two-dimensional, incompressible laminar flows. The study utilizes a very efficient numerical method for solving the nonsteady energy equation. Numerical results for several Prandtl numbers are compared with analytical results obtained with the restriction of small and large time values, and the range of applicability of these analytical solutions is established.