This paper describes the results of an experimental investigation of the turbulent boundary layer on a flat plate with zero pressure gradient, carried out at the Laboratoire de Mécanique de l'Atmosphère (I. M. F. Marseille). Transition to turbulent flow was obtained either by increasing the preturbulence upstream of the plate by means of a grid, or by a series of emery paper roughness elements beginning at the leading edge. The measurements were of the space-time double correlations, i.e. double velocity correlations with both spatial separation and time delay, from which isocorrelation lines for optimum delay can be drawn, and of the spectrum function, all for the longitudinal component of the velocity fluctuation.

A new problem in hydrodynamic stability is investigated. Given two contiguous viscous incompressible fluids, the fluid on one side of the plane interface being bounded by a solid wall and that on the other side being unbounded, the problem is to determine the hydrodynamic stability when the fluids are in steady unidirectional motion, parallel to the interface, with uniform rate of shear in each fluid. The mathematical analysis, based on small disturbance theory, leads to a characteristic value problem in a system of two linear ordinary differential equations. The essential dimensionless parameters that appear in the present problem are the viscosity ratio m, the density ratio r, the Froude number F, and the Weber number W, as well as the parameters α, R (which is proportional here to the flow rate of the inner fluid) and c, that occur in the study of hydrodynamic stability of a single fluid. The results obtained are presented graphically for most fluid combinations of possible interest. The neutral stability curve in the (α, R)-plane is single-looped, as in the boundary layer case. The calculated critical Reynolds numbers are higher than the values observed in liquid film cooling experiments. (In these experiments, the outer fluid is usually a turbulent gas, in which the thickness of the laminar sublayer is of the same order of magnitude as the liquid film thickness.) General agreement between the theoretical and experimental values exists for all critical quantities except the Reynolds number. Gravity and surface tension are found here to have a destabilizing effect on the flow, in agreement with experimental evidence. Semi-infinite plane Couette flow is a special case of the present problem and the known stability of this flow is recovered. The linear velocity profile of two adjacent fluids with the same viscosity, but different densities, is shown to be unstable for high enough Reynolds numbers. The Reynolds stress distribution for a neutral oscillation in the general case is discussed qualitatively.

This paper concerns a narrow basin of uniform cross-section open to the sea at one end and closed at the other. An incident long wave of prescribed general form is supposed to enter from the sea and to represent the combination of tide and surge as generated in the sea. The solution of the linear terms of the equations of continuity and motion gives the reflection of this wave at the head of the estuary. This paper gives the next approximation when the non-linear terms are retained, the second-order motion being made determinate by the condition that, at the mouth, it reduces to a progression towards the sea.

The chief results relate to the surface elevation at the head of the estuary. When the first order elevation there increases steadily to a maximum, the effect of the ‘shallow water terms’ is to make high water higher and earlier, while the effect of the ‘frictional term’ is to make high water lower and later. For a short estuary, the interaction of the tide on a surge, due to a given sequence of meteorological conditions over the sea, is to make it higher when its maximum occurs at the time of tidal high water than when its maximum occurs at the time of tidal low water. This is directly opposite to the corresponding result when the estuary is of infinite length.

An analogue method for solving certain quasi-linear hyperbolic partial differential equations is presented. The characteristic lines are formed by scanning electronically the screen of a cathoderay tube. The boundary conditions are introduced in the form of an opaque mask. The solution appears as a picture on the screen of a second cathode-ray tube. The experiments demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, but the development of the machine has not been carried beyond this stage.

The decay of small perturbations on a plane shock wave propagating along a two-dimensional channel into a fluid at rest is investigated mathematically. The perturbations arise from small departures of the walls from uniform parallel shape or, physically, by placing small obstacles on the otherwise plane parallel walls. An expression for the pressure on a shock wave entering a uniformly, but slowly, diverging channel already exists (given by Chester 1953) as a deduction from the Lighthill (1949) linearized small disturbance theory of flow behind nearly plane shock waves. Using this result, an expression for the pressure distribution produced by the obstacles upon the shock wave is built up as an integral of Fourier type. From this, the shock shape, ξ, is deduced and the decay of the perturbations obtained from an expansion (valid after the disturbances have been reflected many times between the walls) for ξ in descending power of the distance, ζ, travelled by the shock wave. It is shown that the stability properties of the shock wave are qualitatively similar to those discussed in a previous paper (Freeman 1955); the perturbations dying out in an oscillatory manner like ζ−3/2. As before, a Mach number of maximum stability (1·15) exists, the disturbances to the shock wave decaying most rapidly at this Mach number. A modified, but more complicated, expansion for the perturbations, for use when the shock wave Mach number is large, is given in §4.

In particular, the results are derived for the case of symmetrical ‘roof top’ obstacles. These predictions are compared with data obtained from experiments with similar obstacles on the walls of a shock tube.