The present work investigates the dynamics of two-dimensional, steady bubbly flows over a surface and inside a symmetric channel with sinusoidal profiles. Bubble dynamics effects are included. The equations of motion for the average flow and the bubble radius are linearized and a closed-form solution is obtained. Energy dissipation due to viscous, thermal and liquid compressibility effects in the dynamics of the bubbles is included, while the relative motion of the two phases and viscous effects at the flow boundaries are neglected. The results are then generalized by means of Fourier synthesis to the case of surfaces with slender profiles of arbitrary shape. The flows display various flow regimes (subsonic, supersonic and super-resonant) with different properties according to the value of the relevant flow parameters. Examples are discussed in order to show the effects of the inclusion of the various energy dissipation mechanisms on the flows subject to harmonic excitation. Finally the results for a flow over a surface with a Gaussian-shaped bump are presented and the most important limitations of the theory are briefly discussed.

A two-dimensional numerical large-eddy simulation of a temporal mixing layer submitted to a white-noise perturbation is performed. It is shown that the first pairing of vortices having the same sign is responsible for the formation of a continuous spatial longitudinal energy spectrum of slope between k−4 and k−3. After two successive pairings this spectral range extends to more than 1 decade. The vorticity thickness, averaged over several calculations differing by the initial white-noise realization, is shown to grow linearly, and eventually saturates. This saturation is associated with the finite size of the computational domain.

We then examine the predictability of the mixing layer, considering the growth of decorrelation between pairs of flows differing slightly at the first roll-up. The inverse cascade of error through the kinetic energy spectrum is displayed. The error rate is shown to grow exponentially, and saturates together with the levelling-off of the vorticity thickness growth. Extrapolation of these results leads to the conclusion that, in an infinite domain, the two fields would become completely decorrelated. It turns out that the two-dimensional mixing layer is an example of flow that is unpredictable and possesses a broadband kinetic energy spectrum, though composed mainly of spatially coherent structures.

It is finally shown how this two-dimensional predictability analysis can be associated with the growth of a particular spanwise perturbation developing on a Kelvin-Helmholtz billow: this is done in the framework of a one-mode spectral truncation in the spanwise direction. Within this analogy, the loss of two-dimensional predictability would correspond to a return to three-dimensionality and a loss of coherence. We indicate also how a new coherent structure could then be recreated, using an eddy-viscosity assumption and the linear instability of the mean inflexional shear.

Linearized acoustic theory is applied to the calculation of the thickness noise produced by a supersonic propeller with sharp leading and trailing edges. The theoretical development is summarized and numerical calculations of the pressure-time waveform are presented. The erratic behaviour of previous time-domain calculations has been completely eliminated by careful numerical treatment of singular points, multiple singular points and nearly singular points that appear in the analysis. This allows a close inspection of the details of the calculated waveform and leads to the discovery of abrupt changes of slope in the pressure-time waveform, produced by singular points entering or leaving the blade at the tip. The behaviour of the pressure-time waveform is shown to be closely related to changes in the retarded rotor shape. Logarithmic singularities in the waveform are shown to be produced by regions on the blade edges that move towards the observer at sonic speed while at the same time having the edge normal to the line joining the source point and the observer. The logarithmic singularities are closely related to the shock waves produced by a swept airfoil in supersonic rectilinear motion, and they can be eliminated throughout the entire flow field by sweeping the rotor so that the Mach-number component normal to the leading and trailing edges is subsonic for all points on the rotor edges.

The linear parallel and incompressible stability of a family of axisymmetric wake profiles is studied in the range of Reynolds numbers where helical vortex shedding from bluff bodies of revolution is observed. The family of mean flow profiles allows for the variation of the wake depth as well as for a variable ratio of wake width to mixing-layer thickness. It is found that, even without reverse flow, the first helical mode is absolutely unstable in the near wake for Reynolds numbers, based on wake diameter and free-stream velocity, in excess of 3.3 × 103. A survey of the region of local absolute instability as a function of profile parameters and Reynolds number suggests that the large-scale helical vortex shedding, which is observed between Reynolds numbers of 6000 and 3 × 105 for spheres, may be ‘driven’ by a self-excited oscillation in the near wake.

Detailed measurements throughout the separated region behind a flat plate placed normal to a turbulent stream are reported. A long, central, downstream splitter plate prevented vortex shedding and led to a relatively extensive reversed flow region. Mean flow and turbulence data are compared with results obtained in the (nominal) absence of free-stream turbulence, and attention is concentrated on the changes in the shear-layer structure resulting from the different nature of the upstream flow.

Many aspects of the results confirm those obtained recently by other workers. Free-stream turbulence enhances shear-layer entrainment rates, reduces the distance to reattachment and modifies the relatively low-frequency ‘flapping’ motion of the shear layer. In addition, however, extensive use of pulsed wire anemometry has allowed detailed measurements of the turbulence structure throughout the flow and it is shown that this is also modified significantly by the stream turbulence.