In the usual form of thin-shock-layer theory it is assumed that the flow about a lifting body can be expanded in terms of the inverse density ratio across a basic oblique shock wave lying in the plane of the leading edges of the body. In this paper it is shown that more accurate results can be obtained by moving the basic shock closer to the calculated shock wave below the body. The results obtained show why the original form of thin-shock-layer theory often gave good agreement with experiment in conditions which appeared to be outside the range of validity of the theory.

The method of parameter differentiation is applied to the solution of the non-linear, two-point, ordinary differential equations resulting from an analysis of the finite bending of a thin-walled tube. Starting from a given set of solutions of the differential equations for a particular value of the curvature parameter α, solutions for a range of values of α can be obtained by this method non-iteratively. Very close agreement was obtained with solutions using iterative numerical methods.

This paper treats theoretically the problem of the minimum induced drag of non-planar ground effect wings with both tips very close to the ground, within the limitations of the linearised lifting-line theory. The gap clearance between the wing tip and the ground is assumed to be very small and, using this small parameter, an approximate theory, which yields the minimum induced drag of a non-planar ground effect wing, is formulated by the method of matched asymptotic expansions. As a check on the accuracy of the method, this theory is compared with the exact theory for a semicircular wing. This shows that the present method is accurate within the small gap clearance. Moreover, the present method is applied to other wing configurations, such as semi-elliptic wings and wings with endplates, circular arc wings in a tube and circular arc wings. These computations show the theory to be very effective and it can be easily extended to various spanwise cambers.

An analysis is presented for the non-linear vibrations of an elastic rectangular plate resting on a viscoelastic foundation. Hamilton’s principle is used for obtaining coupled non-linear partial differential equations of the system. These equations are uncoupled with the help of Berger’s approximation and the Galerkin method is used to obtain the solution of the resulting equations. Particular cases of the plates on an elastic foundation are also discussed.

A simple integral method is described for the calculation of a thick axisymmetric turbulent boundary layer. It is shown that the development of the boundary layer can be predicted with acceptable accuracy by using an approximate form of the momentum-integral equation, an appropriate skin-friction law, and an entrainment equation obtained for axisymmetric boundary layers. The method also involves the explicit use of a velocity profile family in order to interrelate some of the integral parameters. Available experimental results have been used to demonstrate the general accuracy of the method.

The problem of unsteady hypersonic and supersonic flow with attached shock wave past wedge-like bodies is studied, using as a basis the assumption that the unsteady flow is a small perturbation from a steady uniform wedge flow. It is formulated in the most general case and applicable for any motion or deformation of the body. A method of solution to the perturbation equations is given by expanding the flow quantities in power series in M−2, M being the Mach number of the steady wedge flow. It is shown how solutions of successive orders in the series may be calculated. In particular, the second-order solution is given and shown to give improvements uniformly over the first-order solution.

Three analyses are presented for predicting the development of an axisymmetric turbulent jet issuing into a co-flowing external air stream. The first analysis is analogous to a method used by Patel to predict the growth of a two-dimensional jet in an external air stream. The method is found to be inadequate when the excess velocity on the axis of the jet becomes small compared with the external stream velocity. The second analysis assumes that the turbulence structure is similar at different streamwise stations but it breaks down when the advection of turbulent energy becomes comparable with the turbulent energy production. In the third approach, a two-parameter model of turbulence developed by Rodi and Spalding, which uses two differential equations for the turbulent energy and the length scale of the turbulence respectively, is found to predict closely the experimental results of Antonia and Bilger for a ratio of jet to external stream velocity of 3.0. The success of this last method emphasises the non-similar character of turbulence.