A new laser device has been used to make direct wave-slope measurements in the capillary-gravity range. Owing to the design principles, the digital nature of the system and the use of a laser beam as a probe, the earlier problems of intensity variations and meniscus effects were avoided. Using this new technique, wave-slope spectra both down and across the channel were obtained for different wind conditions, along with corresponding mean-square slope values. Comparisons are made with existing data. The results indicate that a quasi-equilibrium state may exist for each wind speed and that it increases in intensity with increasing wind, which may imply an asymptotic nature for the equilibrium-range coefficient Caa. From the data, two significant frictional velocities, 17.5 and 31 cm/s respectively, are identified as critical values for different ranges of wave development.

We generalize Crapper's exact solution for capillary waves on fluid of infinite depth. We find two finite-depth solutions involving elliptic functions. We show they can also be interpreted as large amplitude symmetrical and antisymmetrical waves on a fluid sheet. Particularly interesting are the waves obtained from our solution in the limit when the fluid sheet is extremely thin.

The problem of the flow generated in a viscous fluid by the impulsive motion of a wavy wall is treated as a perturbation about the known solution for a straight wall. It is shown that, while a unified treatment for high and low Reynolds numbers is possible in principle, the two limiting cases have to be treated separately in order to get results in closed form. It is also shown that a straightforward perturbation expansion in Reynolds number is not possible because the known solution is of exponential order in that parameter. At low Reynolds numbers the waviness of the wall quickly ceases to be of importance as the liquid is dragged along by the wall. At high Reynolds numbers on the other hand, the effects of viscosity are shown to be confined to a narrow layer close to the wall and the known potential sohtion emerges in time. The latter solution is a good illustration of the interaction between a viscous fluid field and its related inviscid field.

Experiments were carried out in the turbulent boundary layer on a slightly heated plate in order to establish, mainly for the larger scales of motion, any analogy that may exist between the temperature and velocity fluctuations. With this goal in mind, the spectra and cospectra of the temperature and velocity fluctuations were measured. In particular, the cospectra were obtained by the ‘fluctuation-diagram method’. It soon became evident that the temperature spectrum, except very close to the wall, differs strongly from the spectrum of the longitudinal velocity component. At least for the lower frequency spectral range, which includes about 80% of the total variance, the experimental results support an analogy between the temperature spectrum and a new type of spectrum consisting of the sum of the spectra of the three velocity components weighted by their relative energy. This analogy was established throughout most of the boundary layer.

A closed tube is considered in which the oscillations of a gas column are driven by the sinusoidal motion of a piston. The case where the frequency of the gas column in the tube lies near one of its resonant frequencies is of special interest. The aim of this paper is to extend the theory of Chester (1964), who has given solutions in the inviscid case and for very small boundary-layer friction, to cases of frictional effects of arbitrary strength. This is done by means of a combination of analytical and numerical methods. Different methods are applied for different strengths of the boundary-layer friction. The cases where the influence of the Stokes boundary layer is either very strong or very weak are not especially difficult to treat. The main part of this paper considers cases of intermediate friction, i.e. when the shock strength has grown rather small owing to the influence of the Stokes boundary layer. To obtain an overall view of the phenomena which occur in the Merent regions, a number of solutions have been calculated.

The reported experimental coefficients describing the spreading rate and virtual origin of a plane turbulent jet exhibit substantial scatter. The hypothesis is made that the basic reason for these variations is that the growth of the jet is not linear on a large scale. Existing experimental results are used to support this hypothesis.

An experiment has been carried out in which air bubbles were caused to grow isothermally at a vertical wall between two closely spaced horizontal plates. The experiment gives an approximate representation in two dimensions for the growth of a vapour bubble at a wall under some conditions of subcooled boiling in zero gravity. Although the effect of gravity was virtually eliminated in the experiment, it was found that a bubble could still detach itself from the wall, apparently owing to the effects of surface tension and inertia.

Also, bubbles were seen to detach from a wall despite the presence of a slight gravity force directed to oppose such detachment.

To understand the turbulent generation of large-scale magnetic fields and to advance beyond purely kinematic approaches to the dynamo effect like that introduced by Steenbeck, Krause & Radler (1966)’ a new nonlinear theory is developed for three-dimensional, homogeneous, isotropic, incompressible MHD turbulence with helicity, i.e. not statistically invariant under plane reflexions. For this, techniques introduced for ordinary turbulence in recent years by Kraichnan (1971 a)’ Orszag (1970, 1976) and others are generalized to MHD; in particular we make use of the eddy-damped quasi-normal Markovian approximation. The resulting closed equations for the evolution of the kinetic and magnetic energy and helicity spectra are studied both theoretically and numerically in situations with high Reynolds number and unit magnetic Prandtl number.

Interactions between widely separated scales are much more important than for non-magnetic turbulence. Large-scale magnetic energy brings to equipartition small-scale kinetic and magnetic excitation (energy or helicity) by the ‘Alfvén effect’; the small-scale ‘residual’ helicity, which is the difference between a purely kinetic and a purely magnetic helical term, induces growth of large-scale magnetic energy and helicity by the ‘helicity effect’. In the absence of helicity an inertial range occurs with a cascade of energy to small scales; to lowest order it is a −3/2 power law with equipartition of kinetic and magnetic energy spectra as in Kraichnan (1965) but there are −2 corrections (and possibly higher ones) leading to a slight excess of magnetic energy. When kinetic energy is continuously injected, an initial seed of magnetic field will grow to approximate equipartition, at least in the small scales. If in addition kinetic helicity is injected, an inverse cascade of magnetic helicity is obtained leading to the appearance of magnetic energy and helicity in ever-increasing scales (in fact, limited by the size of the system). This inverse cascade, predicted by Frisch et al. (1975), results from a competition between the helicity and Alféh effects and yields an inertial range with approximately — 1 and — 2 power laws for magnetic energy and helicity. When kinetic helicity is injected at the scale linj and the rate $\tilde{\epsilon}^V$ (per unit mass), the time of build-up of magnetic energy with scale L [Gt ] linj is $t \approx L(|\tilde{\epsilon}^V|l^2_{\rm inj})^{-1/3}.$

A turbulent boundary layer developing on a smooth heated uniform-temperature plate in a zero pressure gradient was set up. The origins of the layers were matched to remove the effect of an In heated starting length. Similarity proposals were tested. The mean flow field followed the usual law of the wall and defect law for both temperature and velocity. Broad-band measurements of stream wise velocity and temperature fluctuations were made, and wall similarity and Townsend's self-preserving flow similarity were found to be applicable, at least after a sufficient flow development.

Some initial attempts to arrive at a comparison between heat and momentum transport are presented. The results include conditionally sampled measurements of instantaneous heat and momentum fluxes and correlations between these two quantities. The fluxes were divided into quadrants. Conditional probabilities and weighted joint probability density functions were measured to determine whether there was a similarity in behaviour of these two fluxes. The concept of ‘hole size’ developed for momentum flux was extended to heat flux and events corresponding to bursts and sweeps in the momentum flux were found to be accompanied by corresponding events in the heat flux.

Measurements are presented of both mean and fluctuating velocity components in a turbulent boundary layer subjected to a nearly homogeneous external turbulent shear flow. The Reynolds shear stress in the external shear flow is small compared with the wall shear stress. Its transverse mean velocity gradient λ (≃ 6 s−l) is also small compared with typical gradients based on outer variables (say Uw/δ, where Uwis the value of the linear velocity profile extrapolated to the wall and δ is the boundary-layer thickness), but is of the same order as Ut/δ (Ur is the friction velocity). The influence of both positive and negative transverse velocity gradients on the turbulent wall layer is investigated over a streamwise region where the normal Reynolds stresses in the external flow are approximately equal and constant in the streamwise direction. In this region, the integral length scale of the external flow is of the same order of magnitude as that of the wall layer. Measurements in the boundary layer are also given for an un-sheared external turbulent flow (λ = 0) with a turbulence level Tu of 1.5%, approximately the same as that for h = ± 6 s−1. (Tu, is defined as the ratio of the r.m.s. longitudinal velocity fluctuation to Uw.) The measurements are in good agreement with those available in the literature for a similar free-stream turbulence level and show that the external turbulence level and length scale exert a large influence on the turbulence structure in the boundary layer. The additional effect of the external shear on the mean velocity and turbulent energy budget distributions in the inner region of the boundary layer is found to be small. In the outer region, the ‘wake’ component of the mean velocity defect is lowered by the presence of free-stream turbulence and one extra effect due to the external shear is an increase in the Reynolds shear stress when h is positive and a decrease when h is negative. Another interesting effect due to the shear is the appearance near the edge of the layer of a small but distinct region where the local mean velocity is constant and the Reynolds shear stress is negligible.

Coherent axisymmetric structures in a turbulent jet are modelled as linear instability modes of the mean velocity profile, regarded as the profile of a, fictitious laminar inviscid flow. The usual multiple-scales expansion method is used in conjunction with a family of profiles consistent with similarity laws for the initial mixing region and approximating the profiles measured by Crow & Champagne (1971), Moore (1977) and other investigators, to deal with the effects of flow divergence. The downstream growth and approach to peak amplitude of axisymmetric wave modes with prescribed real frequency is calculated numerically, and comparisons are made with various sets of experimental data. Excellent agreement is found with the wavelength measurements of Crow & Champagne. Quantities such as the amplitude gain which depend on cumulative effects are less well predicted, though the agreement is still quite tolerable in view of the facts that this simple linear model of slowly diverging flow is being applied far outside its range of strict validity and that many of the published measurements are significantly contaminated by nonlinear effects. The predictions show that substantial variations are to be expected in such quantities as the phase speed and growth rate, according to the flow signal (velocity, pressure, etc.) measured, and that these variations depend not only on the axial measurement location but also on the cross-stream position. Trends of this kind help to explain differences in, for example, the preferred Strouhal number found by investigators using hot wires or pressure probes on the centre-line, in the mixing layer or in the near field.