A series of decelerative swimming motions of a dolphin were recorded underwater showing that the animal decelerated more rapidly than could be accounted for by frictional drag. The theory of swimming slender bodies was used to calculate the mean thrust on the dolphin produced by the observed motions. It is shown that the dolphin is decelerating by producing a swimming thrust opposite to the direction of swimming.

Measurements of skin friction and mean-velocity profiles have been made in fully developed flows in pipes and channels in the Reynolds number range 1000 < Re < 10000. These measurements, and observations of hot-wire signals, indicate rather remarkable differences between two-dimensional and axially symmetric flows and also make it difficult to give a precise definition of the term ‘fully developed turbulent flow’.

Upper bounds on the torque are derived for a fluid that is contained between two concentric rotating cylinders. Absolute upper bounds are obtained by requiring that the fluid satisfy the boundary conditions and the dissipation integral. Improved bounds are then found by requiring that the fluid satisfy continuity conditions. These bounds are in qualitative agreement with the data in that they reflect the asymptotic parameter dependence in the range of experimental data.

When the vertical boundaries of a container of stratified brine solution are heated, cells are observed to form in the brine with a layered structure. An explanation of this phenomenon has been given in terms of the successive growth of cells from the top and bottom of the container. An alternative explanation is given here which is based on an examination of the stability of the fluid layer in the neighbourhood of the vertical boundaries, a layer in which there exist horizontal gradients in both temperature and salinity, and the explanation is subjected to comparison with a carefully controlled laboratory experiment. The theoretical description is fairly general and it seems possible that the effects of horizontal gradients of salinity and temperature, which approximately compensate each other so as to leave no horizontal density gradient, may be important in the ocean, as suggested by Stern (1967).

The study of sink flow turbulent boundary layers is of particular relevance to the problem of laminarization. The reason lies in the fact that the acceleration parameter which principally determines when a turbulent boundary layer will begin to revert towards laminar is, in these flows, constant from station to station. The paper presents theoretical solutions to this class of boundary layer by making use of the Prandtl mixing-length formula to relate the turbulent shear stress to the mean velocity gradient. Near the wall the Van Driest recommendation for mixing length is adopted and the Van Driest function, A+, is chosen such that the skin friction coefficient does not exceed a certain maximum value.

The predicted solutions, which are in good agreement with available experimental data, display a plausible shift from the turbulent towards the laminar solution as the acceleration parameter is increased.

The effect of vertical boundaries on convection in a shallow layer of fluid heated from below is considered. By means of a multiple-scale perturbation analysis, results for horizontally unbounded layers are modified so that they ‘fit in’ to a rectangular region. The critical Rayleigh number and critical wave-number are determined. Motion is predicted to have the form of finite ‘rolls’ whose axes are parallel to the shorter sides of the dish. Aspects of the non-linear development and stability of this motion are studied. The general question of convective pattern selection in a bounded layer is discussed in the light of available theoretical and experimental results.

A non-linear analysis of the inviscid stability of the common surface of two superposed fluids is presented. One of the fluids is a liquid layer with finite thickness having one surface adjacent to a solid boundary whereas the second surface is in contact with a semi-infinite gas of negligible density. The system is accelerated by a force normal to the interface and directed from the liquid to the gas. A second-order expansion is obtained using the method of multiple time scales. It is found that standing as well as travelling disturbances with wave-numbers greater than

$K^{\prime}_c = k_c[1+\frac{3}{8}a^2k^2_c + \frac{51}{512}a^4k^4_c]^{\frac{1}{2}}$

where a is the disturbance amplitude and kc is the linear cut-off wave-number, oscillate and are stable. However, the frequency in the case of standing waves and the wave velocity in the case of travelling waves are amplitude dependent. Below this cut-off wave-number disturbances grow in amplitude. The cut-off wave-number is independent of the layer thickness although decreasing the layer thickness decreases the growth rate. Although standing waves can be obtained by the superposition of travelling waves in the linear case, this is not true in the non-linear case because the amplitude dependences of the wave speed and frequency are different. A mechanism is proposed to explain the overstability behaviour observed by Emmons, Chang & Watson (1960).

A theoretical study of plane Poiseuille flow is made using the full non-linear Navier-Stokes equations. The mathematical technique employed is to use a Fourier decomposition in the streamwise spatial variable, a Galerkin expansion in the lateral variable and numerical integration with respect to time. By retaining the non-linear terms, the limit cycle oscillations of an unstable (in a linear sense) flow are obtained. A brief investigation of the possibility of instability due to large (non-linear) disturbances is also made. The results are negative for the cases examined. Comparisons with results previously obtained by others from linear theory illustrate the accuracy and efficacy of the method.

We consider here the flow due to the oscillation of a slender oblate spheroid in a non-homogeneous, rotating fluid confined between two parallel planes which are perpendicular to the (vertical) axis of rotation. The direction of oscillation of the spheroid is perpendicular to the axis of rotation. By solving a set of dual integrals the steady-state solution is obtained in the two cases when the plates are at an infinite distance from the body and when they are at a large but finite distance. The singular or discontinuous surfaces observed in the case of homogeneous fluid are absent here. Also, the steady-state velocity is no longer independent of the distance along the axis of rotation. The velocity has now a vertical gradient, an important feature in the case of stratified fluid. It is also found that the presence of the plane boundaries increases the force on the body.

The importance of non-linear free-surface effects on potential flow past two-dimensional submerged bodies is investigated by the use of higher-order perturbation theory. A consistent second-order solution for general body shapes is derived. A comparison between experimental data and theory is presented for the free-surface waves and for the wave resistance of a foil-shaped body. The agreement is good in general for the second-order theory, while the linear theory is shown to be inadequate for predicting the wave drag at the relatively small submergence treated here. It is also shown, by including the third-order freesurface effects, how the solution to the general wave theory breaks down at low speeds.

A mixture of a gas and small solid particles is considered which, far upstream, is in a constant equilibrium state, and moves with a constant velocity. The existence of shock waves is investigated in the four possible cases, namely for frozen flow, for two kinds of partly frozen flow, and for equilibrium flow. It is shown that, in all these cases, compressive shocks may exist, if the upstream velocity exceeds the velocity of sound appropriate to the type of flow. Rarefaction shocks are impossible in each case. Moreover, it is shown that the downstream values of the flow parameters are determined uniquely, and the direction of their change is given. Only rather general assumptions concerning the behaviour of the gas are needed. The paper takes into account the influence of the finite particle volume fraction unlike most previous papers on the topic.

A fluid swirling through an axisymmetrically deformed tube is considered, ignoring viscosity and compressibility. For a tube of radius R, having a longitudinal wall deformation of wave number k, the flow near the wall is blocked, if the Rossby number assumes one of the critical values (λ2n + k2R2)−½, where n is any positive integer, and λn is the nth zero of the Bessel function J1(λ). Rossby number is defined as W/2Rω, in which W and ω are the uniform axial and angular velocities in an undeformed tube. For a convergent-divergent nozzle, the critical Rossby numbers have the same form, with kR = 0. The flow exhibits radically different patterns when each critical Rossby number is crossed.