The response of turbulent boundary layer to sudden change in surface roughness have been studied experimentally. Mean velocity measurements have been made in the boundary layer on a flat plate, downstream of a small step change in surface roughness under 3 different pressure gradients. The surface upstream of the step consisted of ‘k* type ‘large roughness’ wall (or ‘small roughness’ wall) and downstream of the step consisted of smooth surface (or ‘small roughness’ wall). Velocity profiles after the step change have been analysed on the basis of the two layer model. The inner region responds very quickly to the new boundary condition while the outer region takes more time to attain equilibrium or a state of local self-preservation. The skin-friction coefficient initially increased after the step change and gradually reached towards a constant value except for a particular roughness combination under adverse pressure gradient wherein the change in the roughness function is gradual over the transition.

The curvature of an attached shock wave and the flow variable gradients at the tip of a straight edged wedge caused by non-equilibrium effects are determined for a steady plane flow. The specific source of non-equilibrium effects considered here is the dissociation-recombination reaction in a symmetrical diatomic gas. An oxygen like idea dissociating gas is used as an example in calculating the desired quantities. The qualitative behaviour of the exact results is compared with those obtained by using approximate methods.

Significant new results are presented to show to what extent a simplified theory for transonic flow may be used. Solutions are obtained by classical techniques and compared with experiment. Results are given for two-dimensional and three-dimensional, steady and unsteady flow. The effects of flow separation and improvements in Bernoulli’s equation and the surface boundary condition are also briefly discussed.

Jets issuing from rectangular slots cut in thin plates exhibit some unusual features, including unequal spreading rates in the spanwise and transverse directions, the appearance of velocity peaks near the “ends” of the jet and changing rates of centreline velocity decay in the downstream direction. This study examines the effects of aspect ratio on such flows. The flow field has been investigated using both total head tubes and hot wire anemometry. The results are presented in the form of three-dimensional plots of total pressure and contour maps of constant velocity, streamwise turbulence intensity and the Reynolds shear stresses. The decay of mean velocity and stream-wise turbulence intensity along the centreline are presented. The rates of spanwise spreading and the location of the velocity peaks at various downstream stations are discussed. If the aspect ratio is small enough, spanwise peaks in the mean velocity distribution are suppressed.