The purpose of this study is to generalize the experimental method for deciding when a fluid motion can be considered turbulent. The rationale advanced for processing a transducer signal, which indicates the intermittent nature of a turbulent field, is given a probabilistic outlook. In addition an improved detector function is introduced which uses information from longitudinal and lateral fluctuation components.

A detailed study of the intermittency in the outer region of a flat-plate turbulent boundary layer has been carried out using digital sampling and processing techniques. Conditional averages are used to generate mean and fluctuating components for the turbulent and non-turbulent zones of fluid. More particularly, point averages of these variables, taken with reference to the instantaneous position of the turbulent/non-turbulent interface, have been made to show the distribution of various quantities through the turbulent front. The results indicate that significant differences exist at leading and trailing edges of the turbulent bursts and a more complete picture of the motion of an average large eddy is deduced.

Measurements of the intermittency factor γ and in particular the crossing frequency fγ of the turbulent/non-turbulent interface in the outer regions of various turbulent shear flows depend strongly on the settings of the intermittency meter used. Two methods of calibrating an intermittency meter of conventional design are described. In the first, turbulent and non-turbulent signals are simulated and switched at random times using an analog computer. Particular attention is given to the spectra of the switching and turbulent signals but the non-turbulent signal is assumed to have the same spectrum as the turbulent signal. In the second method, the same switching process is applied to two real signals, obtained in the fully turbulent and irretational flow regions associated with a turbulent jet with a co-flowing external air stream. A rather simple calibration procedure derived using the results of both methods is applied to the measurements of γ and fγ in the same jet. It is suggested that the simulation process adopted here could be useful in inferring properties of intermittent turbulent flows.

The low-speed combustion of initially unmixed gaseous reactants under an irreversible two-step chain reaction is examined. Both equilibrium burning, in which two spatially separated flames of zero thickness arise, and near-equilibrium burning, in which two spatially separated flames of small but finite thickness arise, are studied by limit-process expansion techniques. Two time-dependent flows are examined: the first is (one-dimensional) transient mixing flow; and the second is (two-dimensional) transient counterflow. The latter flow, in which there is an impressed finite strain parallel to the flame, such that the flame itself is longitudinally stretched, is discussed as elucidating the characteristics of combustion in non-equilibrium turbulent shear flow.

Experimental results for dissociating nitrogen flow over a wedge, obtained in a free-piston shock tunnel, are described. Interferograms of the flow show clearly the curvature of the shock wave and the rise in fringe shift after the shock associated with the dissociation. It is shown that the shock curvature a t the tip of the wedge can be used to calculate the initial dissociation rate and that it is a more sensitive indication of the rate than can be obtained from fringe shift measurements under the prevailing experimental conditions. Because the free-stream dissociation fraction can be adjusted in the shock tunnel, the dependence on atomic nitrogen concentration of the dissociation rate can be determined by the shock curvature method. A detailed calculation of the flow field by an inverse method, starting from the measured shock shape, shows good agreement with experiments.

The stretching of line elements, surface elements and wave vectors by a random, isotropic, solenoidal velocity field in D dimensions is studied. The rates of growth of line elements and (D – 1)-dimensional surface elements are found to be equal if the statistics are invariant to velocity reversal. The analysis is applied to convection of a sparse distribution of sheets of passive scalar in a random straining field whose correlation scale is large compared with the sheet size. This is Batchelor's (1959) κ−1 spectral regime. Some exact analytical solutions are found when the velocity field varies rapidly in time. These include the dissipation spectrum and a joint probability distribution that describes the simultaneous effect of Stretching and molecular diffusivity κ on the amplitude profile of a sheet. The latter leads to probability distributions of the scalar field and its space derivatives. For a growing κ−1 range at zero κ, these derivatives have essentially lognormal statistics. In the steady-state κ−1 regime at κ > 0, intermittencies measured by moment ratios are much smaller than for lognormal statistics, and they increase less rapidly with the order of the derivative than in the κ = 0 case. The κ > 0 distributions have singularities a t zero amplitude, due to a background of highly diffused sheets. The results do not depend strongly on D. But as D → ∞, temporal fluctuations in the stretching rates become negligible and Batchelor's (1959) constant-strain dissipation spectrum is recovered.

The early and intermediate development of a highly accelerated (or decelerated) turbulent boundary layer is analysed. For sufficiently large accelerations (or pressure gradients) and for total normal strains which are not excessive, the equation for the Reynolds shear stress simplifies to give a stress that remains approximately constant as it is convected along streamlines. The theoretical results for the evolution of the mean velocity in favourable and adverse pressure gradients agree well with experiment for the cases considered. A calculation which includes mass injection at the wall is also given.

Plane turbulent mixing between two streams of different gases (especially nitrogen and helium) was studied in a novel apparatus. Spark shadow pictures showed that, for all ratios of densities in the two streams, the mixing layer is dominated by large coherent structures. High-speed movies showed that these convect at nearly constant speed, and increase their size and spacing discontinuously by amalgamation with neighbouring ones. The pictures and measurements of density fluctuations suggest that turbulent mixing and entrainment is a process of entanglement on the scale of the large structures; some statistical properties of the latter are used to obtain an estimate of entrainment rates. Large changes of the density ratio across the mixing layer were found to have a relatively small effect on the spreading angle; it is concluded that the strong effects, which are observed when one stream is supersonic, are due to compressibility effects, not density effects, as has been generally supposed.

Stokes flow is analysed for a combination body, consisting of a sphere attached to a slender body, translating along its axis in an infinite and otherwise un-disturbed fluid. The cross-section of the after-body, or tail, is circular; the radius, while not necessarily constant, is small compared with the radius of the spherical head. The tail is represented by a distribution of Stokeslets of strength per unit length F(z), located and directed along its axis. The interactive effect of head-tail attachment is manifested by the presence of image singularities located within the sphere. The image system for a single tail Stokeslet must be such that the no-slip condition is satisfied on the surface of the sphere. It is shown that this system consists of a Stokeslet, a Stokes doublet (stresslet only) and a source doublet located a t the image point. The strength F(z) is obtained by applying the no-slip condition to the combination body. The solution follows the lines of traditional slender-body theory, an expansion being performed in ascending powers of the reciprocal of the logarithm of the aspect ratio. The integral force parameters and F(z) are obtained to second order. The interactive effect is assessed, and the results are discussed in the context of a sedimenting micro-organism, such as a spermatozoon. The drag on the combination body is shown to be less by around 10% than the sum of the drags on an isolated sphere and tail. This drag, for a sperm-shaped body, is divided approximately equally between head and tail.