Perturbation expansions are derived to second order in a wavenumber parameter for the unsteady lift induced on an aerofoil by disturbances convected past it at subsonic speeds. The results are used to discuss other approximate methods which have been used to predict the unsteady forces and noise generated by an aerofoil in turbulent flow.

Linear sinusoidal disturbances are introduced into the boundary layer over a heated flat plate of uniform surface temperature using a vibrating ribbon. The experiment is performed in a low turbulence water tunnel with free-stream turbulence intensities of 0[sdot ]1–0[sdot ]2%. Measurements are made using temperature-compensated hot-film anemometry. Neutral-stability characteristics obtained for the unheated case agree favourably with previous results obtained both in water and in air. Neutral-stability and spatial disturbance-growth-rate characteristics measured for wall temperatures up to 8°F above the free-stream temperature verify trends established by parallel-flow solutions of the disturbance momentum and energy equations. Disturbance growth rates and the band of amplified disturbance frequencies both decrease as wall heating is increased. The experimentally observed increase in the minimum critical Reynolds number Recmin with increased wall heating agrees with the trend predicted by theory. However, effects of non-parallel flow act to reduce the measured values of Recmin by about 120 units compared with predicted parallel-flow values independent of the level of wall heating.

An implicit finite-difference technique employing orthogonal curvilinear co-ordinates is used to solve the Navier–Stokes equations for peristaltic flows in which both the wall-wave curvature and the Reynolds number are finite (§2). The numerical solutions agree closely with experimental flow visualizations. The kinematic characteristics of both extensible and inextensible walls (§3) are found to have a distinct influence on the flow processes only near the wall. Without vorticity, peristaltic flow observed from a reference frame moving with the wave will be equivalent to steady potential flow through a stationary wavy channel of similar geometry (§4). Solutions for steady viscous flow (§5) are obtained from simulation of unsteady flow processes beginning from an initial condition of potential peristaltic flow. For nonlinear flows due to a single peristaltic wave of dilatation, the highest stresses and energy exchange rates (§6) occur along the wall and in two instantaneous stagnation regions in the bolus core. A series of computations for periodic wave trains reveals that increasing the Reynolds number from 2[sdot ]3 to 251 yields a modest augmentation in the ratio of flow rate to Reynolds number but induces a much greater increase in the shear stress (§7.1). The transport effectiveness is markedly reduced for pumping against a mild adverse pressure drop (§7.2). Increasing the wave amplitude will lead to the development of travelling vortices within the core region of the peristaltic flow (§7.3).

As an inclined rod sediments in an unbounded viscous fluid it will drift horizontally but will not rotate. When it approaches a vertical wall, the rod rotates and so turns away from the wall. Illustrative experiments and a slender-body theory of this phenomenon are presented. In an incidental study the friction coefficients for an isolated rod are found by numerical solution of the slender-body integral equation. These friction coefficients are compared with the asymptotic results of Batchelor (1970) and the numerical results of Youngren ' Acrivos (1975), who did not make a slender-body approximation.

The conventional long-wave equations for waves propagating over fluid of variable depth depend for their formal derivation on a Taylor series expansion of the velocity potential about the bottom. The expansion, however, is not possible if the depth is not an analytic function of the horizontal co-ordinates and it is a necessary condition for its rapid convergence that the depth is also slowly varying. We show that if in the case of two-dimensional motions the undisturbed fluid is first mapped conformally onto a uniform strip, before the Taylor expansion is made, the analytic condition is removed and the approximations implied in the lowest-order equations are much improved.

In the limit of infinitesimal waves of very long period, consideration of the form of the error suggests that by modifying the coefficients of the reformulated equation we may find an equation exact for arbitrary depth profiles. We are thus able to calculate the reflexion coefficients for long-period waves incident on a step change in depth and a half-depth barrier. The forms of the coefficients of the exact equation are not simple; however, for these particular cases, comparison with the coefficients of the reformulated long-wave equation suggests that in most cases the latter may be adequate. This opens up the possibility of beginning to study finite amplitude and frequency effects on regions of rapidly varying depth.

The thermal structure in the boundary layer and its relation to the heat flux from the cooling and evaporating surface of a deep tank of water are investigated. When a deep layer of water in contact with still air above loses heat to the air, the cooled water in a region just under the surface converges along lines and then plunges down in sheets. These sheets of falling water dissipate as they move into the body of the water, which is in turbulent motion. The vertical profiles of the horizontally averaged temperature and its standard deviation agree fairly closely with theoretical profiles based on time averages of the solution to the heat diffusion equation. The differences between observed and thus predicted profile shapes are consistent with the expected effects of the falling cold thermals and the warm return flow, which are neglected in the theories. The profiles of the standard deviation have large values up to the interface and lie between predictions based on boundary conditions of constant surface temperature and constant heat flux, in keeping with the experimental conditions.

The relation between the net heat flux and the temperature difference across the boundary layer is given in non-dimensional form by N = 0[sdot ]156R0[sdot ]33, which is in good agreement with the asymptotic similarity prediction N [vprop ] R1/3 but lower than theoretical calculations of the upper bound of N vs. R.

Using a normal and tangential co-ordinate approach, a perturbation theory is developed for wind-forced linear and nonlinear Kelvin waves propagating along an irregular coastline. The theory is valid for coastline curvatures which are non-dimensionally small, the curvature being non-dimensionalized with respect to the reciprocal of the boundary-layer trapping scale, i.e. the reciprocal of the radius of deformation. According to linear theory, the main effect of a coastline of small curvature is to cause a phase-speed change in the wave (from – c to – c(1 – ½k(s)), where k(s) is the non-dimensional curvature a distance s along the coast from the origin) and to make the offshore Ekman transport change more rapidly along the coast, the latter effect implying a more ‘wavelike’ ocean or lake response. Two discernible nonlinear effects were found to be an increase (decrease) in the linear-solution longshore gradients in regions of positive (negative) isopycnal displacement and a tendency for increased (decreased) isopyncal displacement at capes (bays).

Systematic renormalized perturbation expansions for turbulence and turbulent convection are constructed which are invariant at each order under random Galilean transformations. Two types of expansion are developed whose lowest truncations give, respectively, the Lagrangian-history direct-interaction approximation and the abridged Lagrangian-history direct-interaction approximation. These approximations previously were derived as heuristic modifications of the Eulerian direct-interaction approximation (Kraichnan 1965). The techniques used involve reversion of primitive perturbation expansions for the generalized velocity field u(x, t/s), defined as the velocity measured at time s in the fluid element which passes through x at time t. The new expansions are illustrated by application to a random linear oscillator, to passive-scalar convection by a random velocity and to the Lagrangian velocity covariance. The lowest term of the expansion for the passive scalar gives Taylor's (1921) exact result for dispersion of fluid elements, and higher terms describe the deviations of the particle-displacement distribution from Gaussian form. In all the applications the assumed underlying statistics are more general than Gaussian statistics, which appear as a special case.

Measurements of the overall heat flux in steady convection have been made in a horizontal layer of dilute aqueous electrolyte. The layer is bounded below by a rigid zero-heat-flux surface and above by a rigid isothermal surface. Joule heating by an alternating current passing horizontally through the layer provides a uniformly distributed volumetric energy source. The Nusselt number at the upper surface is found to be proportional to Ra0[sdot ]227 in the range 1[sdot ]4 ≤ Ra/Rac ≤ 1[sdot ]6 × 109, which covers the laminar, transitional and turbulent flow regimes. Eight discrete transitions in the heat flux are found in this Rayleigh number range. Extrapolation of the heat-transfer correlation to the conduction value of the Nusselt number yields a critical Rayleigh number which is within -6[sdot ]7% of the value given by linearized stability theory. Measurements have been made of the time scales of developing convection after a sudden start of volumetric heating and of decaying convection when volumetric heating is suddenly stopped. In both cases, the steady-state temperature difference across the layer appears to be the controlling physical parameter, with both processes exhibiting the same time scale for a given steady-state temperature difference, or [mid ]ΔRa[mid ]. For step changes in Ra such that [mid ]ΔRa[mid ] > 100Rac, the time scales for both processes can be represented by Fo [vprop ] [mid ]ΔRa[mid ]m, where Fo is the Fourier number of the layer. Temperature profiles of developing convection exhibit a temperature excess in the upper 15–20 % of the layer in the early stages of flow development for Rayleigh numbers corresponding to turbulent convection. This excess disappears when the average core temperature becomes large enough to permit eddy transport and mixing processes near the upper surface. The steady-state limits in the transient experiments yield heat-transfer data in agreement with the results of the steady-state experiments.