ALBERT

Description: A homogeneous fluid of viscosityvis confined between two co-axial disks (vertical separationH) which rotate relative to a rotating system (angular velocity Ω). The resulting velocity field is studied for values of the parameterv/2ΩH2in the range 1·6 × 10−2to 1·8 × 10−3. The Rossby number, defined as the ratio of the relative angular velocity of the disks to the angular velocity of the system, ranged from 0·038 to 0·0041. The dependence of the resulting velocity field (interior and boundary-layer flow) on geometrical parameters, imposed surface and bottom velocities, and Ω, is in good agreement with the calculations of Stewartson and Carrier. In particular, when the two disks rotate with the same angular velocity, the width of the vertical shear layer at the edge of the disks is found to be proportional to Ω−0·25±0·02. When the disks rotate in opposite senses, a shear layer in the vertical velocity is observed which transports fluid from one disk to the other and whose width is proportional to Ω−0·40±0·10. The magnitude and shape of the observed vertical velocity is in fair agreement with a numerical integration of the theoretical results.

Description: When a fluid of low conductivity flows parallel to a plane wall from behind which projects a magnetic field, an electric potential field is established throughout the fluid. In this paper the potential field is obtained explicitly in terms of the velocity field when the latter is unidirectional and depends only on the coordinate normal to the wall. Experiments with a variety of velocity profiles are described, and the agreement with the theory is satisfactory. The effect of slow variation of the profiles in the direction of the flow is considered, and is shown to be unimportant under the conditions of the experiments.

Description: The motion of free surfaces in incompressible, irrotational, inviscid layered flows is studied by evolution equations for the position of the free surfaces and appropriate dipole (vortex) and source strengths. The resulting Fredholm integral equations of the second kind may be solved efficiently in both storage and work by iteration in both two and three dimensions. Applications to breaking water waves over finite-bottom topography and interacting triads of surface and interfacial waves are given. © 1982, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

Description: During the motion of a fluid interface undergoing Rayleigh-Taylor instability, vorticity is generated on the interface baronclinically. This vorticity is then subject to Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. For the related problem of evolution of a nearly flat vortex sheet without density stratification (and with viscosity and surface tension neglected), Kelvin-Helmholtz instability has been shown to lead to development of curvature singularities in the sheet. In this paper, a simple approximate theory is developed for Rayleigh-Taylor instability as a generalization of Moore's approximation for vortex sheets. For the approximate theory, a family of exact solutions is found for which singularities develop on the fluid interface. The resulting predictions for the time and type of the singularity are directly verified by numerical computation of the full equations. These computations are performed using a point vortex method, and singularities for the numerical solution are detected using a form fit for the Fourier components at high wavenumber. Excellent agreement between the theoretical predictions and the numerical results is demonstrated for small to medium values of the Atwood number A, i.e. for A between 0 and approximately 0.9. For A near 1, however, the singularities actually slow down when close to the real axis. In particular, for A = 1, the numerical evidence suggests that the singularities do not reach the real axis in finite time. © 1993, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

Description: A technique for the quantitative measurement of fluid velocities in the range 0–5 cm/sec is described. The technique uses a pH indicator, is applicable in aqueous solutions and permits visualization and measurement of three-dimensional flow fields. © 1966, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

Description: The energetics of a linear array of hollow or stagnant-cored vortices of finite cross-section in an ideal fluid is studied in this paper. The results are useful in a discussion of the amalgamation of vortex structures in a turbulent mixing layer. © 1980, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

Description: The instability of an initially flat vortex sheet to a sinusoidal perturbation of the vorticity is studied by means of high-order Taylor series in time t. All finite-amplitude corrections are retained at each order in t. Our analysis indicates that the sheet develops a curvature singularity at t = tc 〈 oo. The variation of tc with the amplitude a of the perturbation vorticity is in good agreement with the asymptotic results of Moore. When a is 0(1), the Fourier coefficient of order n decays slightly faster than predicted by Moore. Extensions of the present prototype of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability to other layered flows, such as Rayleigh-Taylor instability, are indicated. © 1982, Archives Europeennes de Sociology. All rights reserved.

Description: Fink & Soh (1978) reported a technique to calculate numerically the motion of vortex sheets. They claim it gives reliable results. This paper re-examines the error in the calculation of the velocity of mesh points representing the sheet and shows that the test case used by Fink & Soh is not an adequate one. Instead the roll-up of a vortex sheet shed by a ring wing is studied. The results obtained proved unreliable. (Although several possibilities are discussed) the reason for the breakdown in results remains unknown. © 1980, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.

Description: The equations for the two-dimensional motion of a layer of uniform vorticity in an incompressible, inviscid fluid are examined in the limit of small thickness. Under the right circumstances, the limit is a vortex sheet whose strength is the vorticity multiplied by the local thickness of the layer. However, vortex sheets can develop singularities in finite time, and their subsequent nature is an open question. Vortex layers, on the other hand, have motions for all time, though they may develop singularities on their boundaries. Fortunately, a material curve within the layer does exist for all time. Under certain assumptions, its limiting motion is again the vortex sheet, and thus its behaviour may indicate the nature and possible existence of the vortex sheet after the singularity time. Similar asymptotic results are obtained also for the limiting behaviour of the centre curve as defined by Moore (1978). By examining the behaviour of a sequence of layers, some physical understanding of the formation of the curvature singularity for a vortex sheet is gained. A strain flow, induced partly by the periodic extension of the sheet, causes vorticity to be advected to a certain point on the sheet rapidly enough to form the singularity. A vortex layer, however, simply bulges outwards as a consequence of incompressibility and subsequently forms a core with trailing arms that wrap around it. The evidence indicates that no singularities form on the boundary curves of the layer. Beyond the singularity time of the vortex sheet, the limiting behaviour of the vortex layers is non-uniform. Away from the vortex core, the layers converge to a smooth curve which has the appearance of a doubly branched spiral. While the circulation around the core vanishes, approximations to the vortex sheet strength become unbounded, indicating a complex, local structure whose precise nature remains undetermined. © 1990, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.