A number of shear-flow phenomena can be explained qualitatively if turbulence is regarded as a continuous viscoelastic medium with respect to its action on a mean field. Conditions are sought under which the analogy is quantitative, and it is found that the turbulence must be fine-grained and the mean field weak. For geometrical convenience the turbulence is assumed to be nearly homogeneous and isotropic so that body forces are required to maintain it. The turbulence is found to respond initially to an arbitrary deformation as an elastic medium, in which Reynolds stress is linearly proportional to strain. Three processes that cause the resulting Reynolds stress to relax are distinguished: viscous diffusion, body-force agitation and non-linear scrambling. It is argued that, regardless of which process dominates, Reynolds stress evolves in a continuously changing mean field according to a viscoelastic constitutive law, relating stress to deformation history by means of a scalar memory function. The argument is carried through analytically for weak turbulence, in which non-linear scrambling is negligible, and the memory function is computed in terms of the wave-number-frequency spectrum of the background turbulence. In the course of the analysis, a new type of Reynolds stress arises related to the passage of the turbulence through its sustaining environment of body forces. It is found that the mean field must be surprisingly weak for this ‘translation stress’ to be negligible. Applications of the viscoelasticity theory of turbulent shear flow are discussed in which body forces and therefore translation stress are absent.

In studying the stability of a thermally stratified fluid in the presence of a viscous shear flow, we have a situation in which there is an important interaction between the mechanism of instability due to the stratification and the Tollmien-Schlichting mechanism due to the shear. A complete analysis has been carried out for the Bénard problem in the presence of a plane Poiseuille flow and it is shown that, although Squire's transformation can be used to reduce the three-dimensional problem to an equivalent two-dimensional one, a theorem of Squire's type does not follow unless the Richardson number exceeds a certain small negative value. This conclusion follows from the fact that, when the stratification is unstable and the Prandtl number is unity, the equivalent two-dimensional problem becomes identical mathematically to the stability problem for spiral flow between rotating cylinders and, from the known results for the spiral flow problem, Squire's transformation can then be used to obtain the complete three-dimensional stability boundary. For the case of stable stratification, however, Squire's theorem is valid and the instability is of the usual Tollmien—Schlichting type. Additional calculations have been made for this case which show that the flow is completely stabilized when the Richardson number exceeds a certain positive value.

A recent analysis by Gupta (1967) suggests that a layer of elastico-viscous fluid at rest between parallel plane boundaries may be in unstable equilibrium. This surprising result is attributable to the inadequacy of the constitutive equation adopted by Gupta as the basis for his analysis. An alternative constitutive relation, which takes account of the entire strain-history of the motion, leads to the more reasonable result that the equilibrium is stable whenever the fluid has a ‘fading memory’.

It is shown that useful information concerning the flow in the neighbourhood of the various separation and stagnation points in the laminar near wake of a blunt-based two-dimensional wedge can be learned from the locally valid Stokes type series solutions to the incompressible Navier-Stokes vorticity equation derived previously by Dean & Montagnon (1949) and Moffatt (1964). This theory, which is in qualitative agreement with the experiments of Hama (1967) and Donaldson (1967), shows that the flow separates from the base of a blunt-based body and not from its trailing edge. The series solution for the two-dimensional stagnation point is treated in detail and compared with Howarth's (1934) numerical solution in order to study the convergence and conditions for completeness of the Stokes type series solution. Finally, the wake rear stagnation point is examined to provide insight into the problem of wake closure.

New factors illustrating the effect of convection on acoustic radiation are deduced from Lighthill's theory of aerodynamic noise. For sound dependent on mean velocity variations for its generation, that is shear noise, the new factors are (1 − M cos θ)−3 and (1 − M cos θ)−1 in contrast with (1 − M cos θ)−5 for self noise.

Comparison with the measured far-field directionality patterns reported by Howes (1960) shows that the factor (1 − M cos θ)−3 provides considerably better agreement with the experimental observations than the self noise factor.

The source terms discussed by Lighthill (1954) when considering shear amplification are examined and shown to contain the terms produced by the analysis of Csanady (1966) as well as a new term dependent on the second derivative of the mean velocity.

When a fluid of low conductivity flows parallel to a plane wall from behind which projects a magnetic field, an electric potential field is established throughout the fluid. In this paper the potential field is obtained explicitly in terms of the velocity field when the latter is unidirectional and depends only on the coordinate normal to the wall. Experiments with a variety of velocity profiles are described, and the agreement with the theory is satisfactory. The effect of slow variation of the profiles in the direction of the flow is considered, and is shown to be unimportant under the conditions of the experiments.

An analysis is presented for the stability of a viscoelastic liquid film flowing down an inclined plane with respect to three-dimensional disturbances. It is shown that under certain circumstances, these disturbances are more unstable than the two-dimensional ones, contrary to Squire's theorem.

Wave propagation in one-dimensional erodible-bed channels is discussed by using the shallow-water approximation for the fluid and a continuity equation for the bed. In addition to gravity waves, a third wave, which gives the velocity of propagation of a bed disturbance, is found. An appropriate dimensional analysis yields the quasi-steady approximation for the complete shallow-water equations.

The well-known linear stability analysis of free-surface flows is extended to include the erodibility of the bed. The critical Froude number Fc above which the free-surface of the fluid may become unstable is obtained. It is shown that erodibility increases the stability of the free surface, in qualitative agreement with previous experiments if qb > qs, qb and qs being respectively the contact-bed discharge and suspended-material discharge. The stability theory is also used to discuss coupled beds and surface waves. From it, five different configurations have been obtained: a sinusoidal wave pattern moving downstream, a transition zone and antidunes moving upstream, moving downstream and stationary. These bed forms are in agreement with experimental results; hence shallow-water theory seems to give a reasonable explanation of the boundary instability.

It is shown that the quasi-steady approximation and Kennedy's (1963) stability analysis will be in agreement if (kh)2 [Lt ] 1, where k is the wave number, and h is the depth of the water. When the phase shift δ is introduced in the quasi-steady approximation, the five bed patterns derived from the full equations are found again.

The boundary layer on an axisymmetric surface above which the flow is rotating about the axis of symmetry is considered. Transformations of the governing equations which permit the generalizations of a known solution for one meridian shape in incompressible flow to a family of meridian shapes are shown to exist. For compressible flow, a transformation of the Stewartson-Illingworth type was found which reduces a compressible flow problem to an incompressible case. Also, remarks are made concerning the invariance of the turbulent boundary-layer integral equations assuming particular semi-empirical shear laws.

It is pointed out that recent theoretical results for the spin-up of a continuously stratified fluid with insulating boundary conditions are at variance with experiment. However, it is then shown that the theoretical analysis contains an inconsistent scaling assumption, so that the apparent contradiction is not a real one. The nature of the spin-up as shown by the experiments is briefly described.

Among the parameters which determine the erosion damage sustained by the walls of a nozzle, in which a mixture of gas and particles is flowing is the speed attained by the particle before collision with the wall surface. This work is concerned with the determination of the particle velocity, and a number of relationships are given from which the variation in particle velocity can be obtained for a variety of gas conditions. The changes of state and velocity of the gas, occasioned by the interchange of heat and work between the gas and the particles are dependent on the ratio of the mass flow rate of particles to the mass flow rate of gas. It is shown that if this ratio is small the particle velocity may be obtained without serious error by assuming that the gas conditions are not affected by the presence of particles. Figures for the limiting value of this ratio for certain flows are given. The effects of particle size, density and initial relative velocity are investigated analytically and experimentally.

A third-order theory has been developed to study capillary instability of a liquid jet. The result shows that the asymmetrical development of an initially sinusoidal wave is a non-linear effect with generation of higher harmonics as well as feedback into the fundamental. The growth of the surface wave is found to depend explicitly on the dimensionless initial amplitude of the disturbance and the dimensionless wave-number k of the wave. For the same initial disturbance, the wave is found to have a maximum growth rate at k = 0·7 in agreement with the linearized theory. For the same wave-number, the growth is proportional to the initial amplitude of the disturbance. The cut-off wave-number and the fundamental frequency (or growth rate for the unstable case) of the wave for a given k are found to be different from the linearized theory. Furthermore, at the cut-off wave-number, the present theory shows the disturbance experiences a growth which is proportional to t2. The excellent agreement between Donnelly & Glaberson's experiment and Rayleigh's linearized theory is found to be due to their method of measurement.

A shear-acceleration wave is a propagating singular surface across which the velocity vector and the normal component of the acceleration are continuous, while the tangential component $\dot{v}$ of the acceleration suffers a jump discontinuity [$\dot{v}$]. We here discuss plane-rectilinear shearing flows of general, non-linear, incompressible simple fluids with fading memory. Working within the framework of such planar motions, we derive a general and exact formula for the time-dependence of the amplitude a = [$\dot{v}$] of a shear-acceleration wave propagating into a region undergoing a steady but not necessarily homogeneous shearing flow. When this expression is specialized to the case in which the velocity gradient is constant in space ahead of the wave, it assumes a form familiar in the theory of longitudinal acceleration waves in compressible materials with fading memory (cf., e.g., Coleman & Gurtin 1965, equation (4.12)).

In earlier work (1965) we observed that a planar shear-acceleration wave cannot grow in amplitude if it is propagating into a fluid in a state of equilibrium. It is clear from our present results that if the fluid ahead of the wave is being sheared, |a(t)| not only increases, but can approach infinity in a finite time, provided a(0) is of proper sign and |a(0)| exceeds a certain critical amplitude. We expect this critical amplitude to decrease as the rate of shear ahead of the wave is increased.

The motions resulting when a linear, stable salt gradient is heated uniformly and at a steady rate from below are investigated theoretically and by laboratory experiment. A convecting, growing layer is first formed whose depth, temperature and salinity differences from the fluid above, are all increasing as t½. The way in which these quantities depend on the salinity gradient and heating rate is also predicted, and verified experimentally. A stability criterion is then developed which describes the breakdown of the diffusive boundary layer ahead of the advancing front, and leads to an expression for the thickness of the bottom layer when a second layer forms above it. The predicted form of dependence of layer thickness on the given parameters is again borne out by the experiments.

The Galerkin method is applied in a new way to problems of stationary and oscillatory convective instability. By retaining the time derivatives in the equations rather than assuming an exponential time-dependence, the exact solution is approximated by the solution to a set of ordinary differential equations in time. Computations are simplified because the stability of this set of equations can be determined without finding the detailed solution. Furthermore, both stationary and oscillatory instability can be studied by means of the same trial functions. Previous studies which have treated only stationary instability by the Galerkin method can now be extended easily to include oscillatory instability. The method is illustrated for convective instability of a rotating fluid layer transferring heat.