The two-dimensional prediction method of Bradshaw, Ferriss & Atwell (1967), which was based on the empirical conversion of the turbulent energy equation into a ‘transport’ equation for shear stress, is extended to three-dimensional flows satisfying the boundary-layer approximation (which excludes flows near bluff obstacles or streamwise corners). Predictions, using exactly the same empirical data as in two-dimensional flow, agree to within the likely experimental error with a variety of experiments on ‘infinite’ swept wings.

The pattern and propagation of waves excited by forcing effects that may oscillate with a frequency σo and are travelling with a uniform velocity U along the axis of rotation in a rotating stratified liquid are studied by employing the technique of Lighthill. The fluid is assumed to be an unbounded, in viscid, incompressible, non-diffusive, rotating stratified liquid, rotating with a constant angular velocity Ω about a vertical axis and with a density decreasing vertically upwards. It is found that the effect of rotation on stratification or vice versa is to reduce the region of disturbance and to split the wave crests for Ω0 ≠ 0. The periodic nature of the forcing effect excites various systems of waves which are otherwise coincident.

A solution is developed for the deflexion of an inviscid, incompressible, twodimensional jet by a series of segments of arbitrary number, lengths, and angles. The Schwarz–Christoffel transformation and free-streamline theory are used. Results are calculated for a number of configurations, using an IBM 360 computer. Excellent comparison is found with several previous calculations for special cases.

Measurements of the noise field from a 25 mm diameter subsonic air jet are presented. These results are analysed in some detail by determining both the jet velocity dependence and the directivity of the intensity of the radiation in 1/3-octave bands at particular values of the frequency parameter, \[ (fD/V_J)(1-M_c\cos\theta). \] This procedure should ensure that a particular source in a geometrically similar position in the jet is always observed, whatever the jet velocity, diameter and emission angle.

These results are compared with the predictions of Lighthil's (1952) theory of convected quadrupoles. It is shown that the theory predicts the variation of the intensity with jet velocity and emission angle provided that the observed frequency is below a certain critical value, which depends on jet diameter and emission angle and is independent of jet velocity. Above this critical frequency, the predicted variations overestimate the measurements and it appears that the convective amplification predicted by the theory is much reduced. The variation of this critical frequency is explained by assuming that substantial interaction occurs between the radiated sound and the jet flow when the wavelength of the sound becomes shorter than the sound path length in the jet flow.

A Green's function for a semi-infinite rotating ocean of uniform depth is obtained, and the resulting near and far fields are estimated asymptotically.

Given a tide of uniform height at the mouth of a narrow channel on a semiinfinite ocean, the Green's function is used to calculate the diffracted Kelvin and Poincaré waves propagating up the channel and into the ocean.

An exact solution is obtained for the problem of fully-developed, radiating, laminar convective flow in a vertical heated channel. The effect of radiation is to decrease the temperature difference between the gas and the wall, thereby reducing the influence of natural convection. Thus, the reduction in velocity occurring in a heated upflow is less for a radiating gas. Graphs are presented for the dimensionless velocity and temperature profiles and for the volume and heat fluxes.

The optimum shape problems considered in this part are for those profiles of a two-dimensional flexible plate in time-harmonic motion that will minimize the energy loss under the condition of fixed thrust and possibly also under other isoperimetric constraints. First, the optimum movement of a rigid plate is completely determined; it is necessary first to reduce the original singular quadratic form representing the energy loss to a regular one of a lower order, which is then tractable by usual variational methods. A favourable range of the reduced frequency is found in which the thrust contribution coming from the leading-edge suction is as small as possible under the prescribed conditions, outside of which this contribution becomes so large as to be hard to realize in practice without stalling. This optimum solution is compared with the recent theory of Lighthill (1970); these independently arrived-at conclusions are found to be virtually in agreement.

The present theory is further applied to predict the movement of a porpoise tail of large aspect-ratio and is found in satisfactory agreement with the experimental measurements. A qualitative discussion of the wing movement in flapping flight of birds is also given on the basis of optimum efficiency.

The optimum shape of a flexible plate is analysed for the most general case of infinite degrees of freedom. It is shown that the solution can be determined to a certain extent, but the exact shape is not always uniquely determinate.

This paper seeks to evaluate the swimming flow around a typical slender fish whose transverse cross-section to the rear of its maximum span section is of a lenticular shape with pointed edges, such as those of spiny fins, so that these side edges are sharp trailing edges, from which an oscillating vortex sheet is shed to trail the body in swimming. The additional feature of shedding of vortex sheet makes this problem a moderate generalization of the paper on the swimming of slender fish treated by Lighthill (1960a). It is found here that the propulsive thrust depends not only on the virtual mass of the tail-end section, but also on an integral effect of variations of the virtual mass along the entire body segment containing the trailing side edges, and that this latter effect can greatly enhance the thrust-making.

The optimum shape problem considered here is to determine the transverse oscillatory movements a slender fish can make which will produce a prescribed thrust, so as to overcome the frictional drag, at the expense of the minimum work done in maintaining the motion. The solution is for the fish to send a wave down its body at a phase velocity c somewhat greater than the desired swimming speed U, with an amplitude nearly uniform from the maximum span section to the tail. Both the ratio U/c and the optimum efficiency are found to depend upon two parameters: the reduced wave frequency and a ‘proportionalloading parameter’, the latter being proportional to the thrust coefficient and to the inverse square of the wave amplitude. The basic mechanism of swimming is examined in the light of the principle of action and reaction by studying the vortex wake generated by the optimum movement.

An experiment has been performed, using pulsed dye injection on an aerofoil in a Hele-Shaw cell. The purpose was to observe the form of the trailing-edge flow when the Reynolds number was high enough to permit separation and the initiation of a Kutta condition. The experiment provides a successful confirmation of the existence of a ‘viscous tail’ as predicted by Buckmaster (1970) although there is an unexplained quantitative discrepancy.

According to the Lighthill acoustic analogy, the sound induced by a region of turbulence is the same as that due to an equivalent distribution of quadrupole sources within the fluid. It is known that the presence of scattering bodies situated near such multipoles can convert some of their intense near field energy into the form of sound waves whose amplitude is far greater than that of the incident field. Calculations are here presented to determine the extent of this conversion, for hard and soft bodies of various shapes, making use of the reciprocal theorem to recast the problem into one of finding the field, near the obstacle, induced by an incident plane wave. If the obstacle is small compared with a wavelength, then its presence is equivalent to an additional dipole (or source) whose greater efficiency as a sound radiator implies that the familiar intensity law I ∝ U8, for far field intensity I against typical turbulence velocity U for an unbounded flow, is replaced by I ∝ U6 (or I ∝ U4) for a hard (or soft) body. For the situation where the scatterer is large compared with wavelength, the prototype problem of a wedge of exterior angle (p/q)π is shown to yield an intensity law I ∝ U4+2q/p for both hard and soft surfaces. This result is shown to hold for the more general ‘wedge-like’ surfaces, whose dimensions are large scale and whose edges may be smoothed out on a small scale, compared with wavelength. The method used involves the matching of an incompressible flow, on the fine scales typical of the edge geometry, to an outer flow determined by the large scale features of the surface. Favourable comparisons are made with previous results pertaining to the two-dimensional semi-infinite duct and to the half-plate of finite thickness.

The flow in the wakes behind two-dimensional perforated plates has been investigated in the Reynolds number range 2·5 × 104 to 9·0 × 104.

Measurements of drag and shedding frequency were made and a pulsed hotwire anemometer was used to measure the mean velocity and turbulent intensity variations in the highly turbulent regions immediately behind the plates.

The results indicate the existence of two distinct types of flows: one appropriate to high and the other to low values of plate porosity.

This paper examines the deformation of a solitary wave due to a slow variation of the bottom topography. Differential equations which determine the slow variation of the parameters of a solitary wave are derived by a certain averaging process applied to the exact in viscid equations. The equations for the parameters are solved when the bottom topography varies only in one direction, and when the wave evolves from a region of uniform depth. The variation of amplitude with depth is determined and compared with some recent experimental results.