COUETTE FLOW SOLUTION USING ANALYTICAL AND CRANKNICOLSON NUMERICAL TECHNIQUE

RASIKH TARIQ
(rasikhtariq@gmail.com)

Introduction
Flow of a viscous fluid between one stationary
and one moving plate is a Couette Flow.

Shear stresses

yy
y

zy
z

xy
x

= 0. Using this

information, the y-direction momentum equation

becomes:
p
=0
y
The governing x-direction momentum equation is:
FIGURE 1 FLUID MOVEMENT BETWEEN A FIXED AND A
MOVING PLATE - COUETTE FLOW
The report covers the following methods of
finding the Couette flow solution:

Exact Analytical Approach

Implicit Numerical Approach using CrankNicolson Technique

Exact Analytical Approach

It is a viscous flow between two parallel plates
separated by the vertical distance D. The upper
plate is moving at a velocity ue , and the lower
plate is stationary i.e. u = 0. The flow between
the two plates is driven exclusively by the shear
stress exerted on the fluid by the moving upper
plate resulting in a velocity profile. The velocity
profile is linear for steady conditions.

Du
p xx yx zx
= +
+
+
+ fx
Dt
x
x
y
z

Flow is flowing only in x-direction. The only shear

stresses will be in x-direction on a plane
perpendicular to y-axis and as a result shear
stresses xx = zx = 0. Ignoring all the body
forces, the x-direction momentum equation
becomes:

u
u
u
u yx
+ u + v + w
=
t
x
y
z
y

Using the steady state assumption, the equation

becomes:
u

u
u
u yx
+ v + w
=
x
y
z
y

The velocity gradient

The governing y-direction momentum equation is:

Dv
p xy yy zy
= +
+
+
+ fy
Dt
y
x
y
z

Whereas:

Dv
v
v
v
v
= + u + v + w = 0
Dt
t
x
y
z

u
x

= 0 as a result

term u x = 0. There is no velocity in y-direction

u

i.e. v = 0, as a result the term v y = 0. The

equation is left with:
yx
=0
y

Using the viscous Newtonian fluid assumption, the

above equation can be expressed as:

u
( ) = 0
y y

Following is the result plotted by Matlab:

-3

Or

12

Couette Flow Velocity Profile

u = c1 y + c2

10

Velocity Profile (m/s)

The above equation is the exact solution for

incompressible, Newtonian and steady flow. The
exact solution is given by:

x 10

Using boundary condition at y = 0 we have u = 0,

we get c2 = 0.
Using boundary condition at y = D we have u =
ue, we get c1 = ue /D.
The solution becomes:
u
y
=
ue D
The equation is solved using Matlab. Following is
the Matlab Code:
clc
clear
%Workspace and Command History Cleared
ue = 0.01 %Velocity of Upper Plate moving with 0.01m/s
D = 0.05 %Separation Distance between plate. 5cm
%y is distance from lower plate to upper plate
y = linspace(0,D,500);
for i=1:1:500
U(i)=(ue*y(i))/D;
end

0
-0.01

0.01

0.03

0.04

0.05

Numerical Implicit Approach

using Crank-Nicolson Technique
A time marching procedure is chosen. For this
purpose, an unsteady, incompressible, Couette
flow x-direction momentum equation will be:

Eq. (1)

Nature of Partial Differential Equation

The general classification of a second order partial
differential equation with two variables is:
A

2 u
2 u
2 u
u
u
+
B
+
C
+ D + E + Fu
2
2
t
t y
y
t
y
= G(t, y)

By comparison, we get:
A = 0,

plot (y,U)
legend ('Couette Flow Velocity Profile','Fontsize',12')
xlabel ('Width Between Plates (m)',' Fontsize ',12')
ylabel ('Velocity Profile (m/s)',' Fontsize ',12')
axis ([-0.01 0.06 -0.001 0.012])

0.02

Width Between Plates (m)

B = 0,

C=

Since, B 2 4AC = 0 the equation is parabolic in

nature.

0.06

The Numerical Formulation

The numerical formation must be developed for
any dimension and velocity of Couette Flow so Eq.
(1) must be in a dimensionless format. Defining
u =

u
ue

y =
=

y
D

D
ue

Eq. (1) now becomes:

u
( )
ue

u
2 ( ) u
ue 2
ue
e

( )=
2 (D2 )
y
D
t
(D)
(D )
ue
Or
u
2 u
=
t ue D y 2

Here the term u

eD

is the reciprocal of ReD. We

get:
u
1 2 u
=
t
ReD y 2
For simplicity and ease of writing the
mathematical formulas consider:
u
1 2 u
=
t
ReD y 2
However u, t and y are the representative of
dimensionless forms of u, t and y .
u

The term t is written using forward difference

2 u

equation, and the term y2 is written using central

second difference. Finally the finite difference
equation becomes:
un+1
unj
j
t

Where j represents space marching direction and

n represents time marching direction. Rewriting
the equation using Crank-Nicolson technique by
using the averaging of terms:

1 unj+1 2unj + unj1

()2
ReD

un+1
unj
j
t

1 n+1
1
1 n+1
n
n+1
n
n
1 2 (uj+1 + uj+1 ) + 2 (2uj + 2uj ) + 2 (uj1 + uj1)
=
()2
ReD
Or
un+1
= unj +
j

t
(un+1 + unj+1 2un+1
j
2()2 ReD j+1
n
2unj + un+1
j1 + uj1 )

un+1
= unj +
j

t
un+1
2()2 ReD j+1
t
+
un
2()2 ReD j+1
t

2un+1
2()2 ReD j
t

2un
2()2 ReD j
t
+
un+1
2()2 ReD j1
t
+
un
2()2 ReD j1

Further rearranging by taking n + 1 terms on the

left side of the above equation:
Further rearranging by taking n + 1 terms on the
left side of the above equation:

t
t
un+1
[
] un+1 + [
] 2un+1
j
j
2()2 ReD j+1
2()2 ReD
t
[
] un+1
2()2 ReD j1
t
= unj + [
] un
2()2 ReD j+1
t
[
] 2unj
2()2 ReD
t
+[
] un
2()2 ReD j1
Figure 2 Labeling of Points for the Grid
I divided the total domain into 7 nodes. All the
equations for the 7 nodes will be written. It can be
seen in the boundary condition that:
Taking certain mathematical terms common:

[
] +
] +
+ [ +

()
()

[
] +
() +

= [
]
()

+[
] (+ + )
()

u1 = 0

+
+

Au1n+1 + Bun+1
+ Aun+1
= K2
2
3
Modified format is:
Bun+1
+ Aun+1
= K 2 Au1n+1
2
3
The second equation for this system (j = 3) is:
Aun+1
+ Bun+1
+ Aun+1
= K3
2
3
4

Eq. (2)

The third equation for this system (j = 4) is:

Provided:

Aun+1
+ Bun+1
+ Aun+1
= K4
3
4
5
A=

t
2(y)2 ReD

t
B=1+
(y)2 ReD

The fourth equation for this system (j = 5) is:

Aun+1
+ Bun+1
+ Aun+1
= K5
4
6
5
The fifth equation for this system (j = 6) is:

And
K = [1

uN+1 = 0

The first equation for this system (j = 2) is:

The above equation becomes:

+

and

Aun+1
+ Bun+1
+ Aun+1
= K6
6
7
5
t
] un
(y)2 ReD j
t
+[
] (unj+1 + unj1 )
2(y)2 ReD

Or
Aun+1
+ Bun+1
= K 6 Aun+1
6
7
5
The results (velocity distribution) can be attained
by solving the resulting matrix.

+
+

=
+

] +
[ ] [ +
]

Solving the above set of matrices will eventually

give the velocity profile.

References

John D. Anderson, JR (1995). Computational

Fluid Dynamics: The Basics with Applications.
McGraw Hill, Inc.
Munson, Young, Okiishi, Huebsch (2008).
Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc.