A grid-generated ‘isotropic’ turbulent flow has been subjected to a spectrally local perturbation in the form of a high wavenumber, sinusoidal ripple in the mean velocity. It is introduced as the wake of a fine wire, low solidity screen (a ‘zither’), operating below its vortex-shedding Reynolds numbers. The perturbation appears most clearly downstream as a strongly periodic component in the transverse correlation of streamwise turbulent velocity, R11(r2). Its Fourier transform, E11(k2, a ‘one-dimensional spectrum’, shows a corresponding local ‘spike’. The downstream evolution of this perturbation has been chronicled for four different spectral locations. Their decays are approximately exponential. Measurements of the one-dimensional spectrum E11(k1) at several downstream stations show evidence of energy transfer to other wavenumber regions.

The decay of the velocity correlation ripple is approximately consistent with the decrease in time of the narrow-band correlation function presented by Comte-Bellot & Corrsin (1971). It is also found that the linear perturbation response calculated by Kraichnan (1959) for a disturbance wavenumber larger than those of the incident turbulence shows fair agreement with this decay.

This paper describes the flow structure observed over a bell-shaped hill with height h (the profile of which is the reciprocal of a fourth-order polynomial) when it was placed first in a large towing tank containing stratified saline solutions with uniform stable density gradients and second in an unstratified wind tunnel. (A similarly shaped model hill was also studied in a small towing tank.) Observations were made at values of the Froude number F (≃ U/Nh) in the range 0·1 to 1·7 and at F = ∞, where U is the towing speed and N is the Brunt-Väisälä frequency, and at values of the Reynolds number from 400 to 275000. For F ≲ 0·4, the observations verify Drazin's (1961) theory for low-Froude-number flow over three-dimensional obstacles and establish limits of applicability. For Froude numbers of the order of unity, it is found that a classification of the lee-wave patterns and separated-flow regions observed in two-dimensional flows also appears to apply to three-dimensional hills.

Flow-visualization techniques were used extensively in obtaining both qualitative and quantitative information on the flow structure around the hill. Representative photographs of dye tracers, potassium permanganate dye streaks, shadowgraphs, surface dye smears, and hydrogen-bubble patterns are included here. While emphasis is centred on obtaining a basic understanding of the flow around three-dimensional hills, the results are applicable to the estimation of air pollutant dispersion around hills.

Howells’ model of the scalar spectrum for isotropic turbulent flow is simplified using a restriction to large Péclet number and statistically stationary turbulence at high wavenumbers, and is generalized by introducing Batchelor's constant as a free parameter. The resulting model is compared with data from the atmospheric surface layer, ocean, and liquid mercury. It is found that Howells’ model, which is applicable for arbitrary Prandtl number (Pr), does not compare well with data for large and intermediate Pr at wavenumbers higher than those in the inertial-convective range. The model implies that the inertial-diffusive range asymptotic form, , cannot appear even for Pr as small as that of mercury (Pr = 0·018).

A physical explanation is suggested for how the instability of certain fluid systems may be provoked by the addition of a ‘bottom-heavy’ density gradient. It is shown that in all the recent examples of this behaviour the stratification shifts the oscillation frequency at the marginal state towards the diffusion rate associated with the driving mechanism for the instability, and this allows a more effective release of the available energy. When the driving mechanism is an adverse temperature gradient, for example, the frequency shift induced by a bottom-heavy solute distribution can increase the temperature change that a vertically-displaced fluid parcel acquires during each halfcycle, thereby enhancing the thermal buoyancy forces which drive the instability.

Interferometric data were obtained in the 10 cm × 18 cm hypervelocity shock tube of oblique shock-wave reflexions in argon at initial temperatures and pressures of nearly 300 °K and 15 Torr. The shock Mach-number range covered was 2 ⩽ Ms ⩽ 8 over a series of wedge angles 2° ⩽ θw ⩽ 60°. Dual-wavelength laser interferograms were obtained by using a 23 cm diameter field of view Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In addition to our numerous results, the available data for argon and helium obtained over the last two decades were also utilized. It is shown analytically and experimentally that in non-stationary flows six domains exist in the (Ms, θw) plane where regular reflexion (RR), single-Mach reflexion (SMR), complex-Mach reflexion (CMR) and double-Mach reflexion (DMR) can occur. The transition boundaries between these regions were all established analytically. The experimental results from different sources substantiate the present analysis, and areas of disagreement which existed in the literature are now clarified and resolved. It is shown that real-gas effects have a significant influence on the size of the regions and their boundaries. In addition, isopycnics (constant density lines) are given for the four types of reflexion, as well as the density distribution along the wedge surface. This data should provide a solid base for computational fluid dynamicists in comparing numerical techniques with actual experimental results.

An initial thermal stratification may be swept out of a valley if a cross-wind is strong enough: the valley is then said to be ventilated. Numerical and laboratory experiments indicate that the critical parameter is the Froude number, , where is the mean horizontal velocity above the crest of the valley sides, N is the Brunt–Väisälä or bouyancy frequency of the thermal stratification in the valley air and h is the height of the valley walls. Ventilation occurs whenever the Froude number exceeds a value of 1·3.

Measured values of mean velocity, Reynolds stresses and probability density distributions of fluctuating velocity are reported for the turbulent coaxial jets, with and without swirl, emerging into stagnant surroundings from a long pipe and an annulus concentric with the pipe. They were obtained using hot-wire anemometry and on-line data processing with the aid of a mini-computer. The results show that non-swirling coaxial flow configurations approach a self-similar state in a much smaller distance than that of the round jet, for velocity ratios ranging between 0·65 and 1·5; this is due to the mixing layer and vortex shedding that occur in the region downstream of the separation wall between the two streams. In the presence of swirl, the coaxial jet was found to develop at a faster rate. An assessment of turbulence models, based on Reynolds stress closures, suggests that previous assumptions for turbulent diffusion of turbulent kinetic energy are in error.

A class of exact, self-similar, time-dependent solutions describing free surface flows under gravity is found which extends the self-propagating class of solutions discovered earlier by Freeman (1972) to those which decay with time.

The intradiurnal heating and cooling cycle of the mixed layer of a tropical ocean is investigated through the use of a ‘pseudo-two-dimensional’ numerical model. Particular emphasis is given to two-component diffusion resulting from dynamic instabilities in the water column. The conservation equations for salt and heat include the effects of solar heating, horizontal advection and turbulent fluxes at the sea surface, while wind mixing enters through the use of depth-dependent eddy diffusion coefficients resulting from the wave-orbital shear model of Kitaigorodskiy (1961). All inputs are treated as functions of time of day, or calculated via the bulk aerodynamic method.

The entrainment fluxes of salt and heat due to the mechanical stirring of the wind and the fluxes due to molecular diffusion are treated as separate, their respective contributions being added to form the diffusion coefficients used in an alternating-direction explicit scheme to integrate the heat and salt equations. Near the surface, in the absence of strong solar heating (i.e. during the night), these two fluxes alone are insufficient to remove the near-surface static instabilities; thus the presence of some additional process is suggested. A dynamic stability analysis is carried out, based on the temperature and salinity gradients. The resulting Rayleigh numbers indicate the possibility of double-diffusive convection, whereby the vertical transfers of salt and heat may proceed at rates far greater than can be accounted for by molecular diffusion alone. Therefore, the molecular diffusions in the model are increased by a factor roughly proportional to the one-third power of the ratio of the local effective Rayleigh number to a critical Rayleigh number. The modified molecular diffusivities are then added to the eddy diffusion coefficients due to the wind, to form the total diffusion coefficients used in the numerical integrations.

Comparisons are made between the model-generated profiles of temperature and the profiles observed in the ocean. The comparisons show reasonable agreement in the diurnal cycle of the heat wave at 1 m vertical resolution (except for the model-generated surface layer being too deep during the late afternoon hours). (Previous models typically predict only the temperature and thickness of a homogeneous layer.) The results obtained with the model are instructive in estimating the relative importance of the various mixing processes in the upper ocean.