Laminar separating flow over a prolate spheroid

A good number of careful boundary-layer calculations have been carried out in the past decade for the flow about a prolate spheroid. These calculations have clearly demonstrated that the difficulty of the problem centers mostly about the proper choice of the grid shape and marching process. Most recently further improvements on methods of integration that conform with the principles of influence and dependence have appeared. The difficulties multiply as one approaches the line of separation. The experimental effort reported here is undertaken with the purpose of shedding some light on the peculiar structure of three-dimensional laminar separation. The experiments described were conducted in a water tunnel.