The influence of viscosity contrast on buoyantly unstable miscible fluids in a porous medium is investigated through a linear stability analysis (LSA) as well as direct numerical simulations (DNS). The linear stability method implemented in this paper is based on an initial value approach, which helps to capture the onset of instability more accurately than the quasi-steady-state analysis. In the absence of displacement, we show that viscosity contrast delays the onset of instability in buoyantly unstable miscible fluids. Further, it is observed that by suitably choosing the viscosity contrast and injection velocity a gravitationally unstable miscible interface can be stabilized completely. Through LSA we draw a phase diagram, which shows three distinct stability regions in a parameter space spanned by the displacement velocity and the viscosity contrast. DNS are performed corresponding to parameters from each regime and the results obtained are in accordance with the linear stability results. Moreover, the conversion from one dimensionless formulation to another and its importance when comparing the different type of flow problem associated with each dimensionless formulation are discussed. We also calculate ${\it\epsilon}$-pseudo-spectra of the time dependent linearized operator to investigate the response to external excitation.

We report on experiments of turbulent particle-laden plumes descending through a stratified environment. We show that provided the characteristic plume speed $(B_{0}N)^{1/4}$ exceeds the particle fall speed, where the plume buoyancy flux is $B_{0}$ and the Brunt–Väisälä frequency is $N$, then the plume is arrested by the stratification and initially intrudes at the neutral height associated with a single-phase plume of the same buoyancy flux. If the original fluid phase in the plume has density equal to that of the ambient fluid at the source, then as the particles sediment from the intruding fluid, the fluid finds itself buoyant and rises, ultimately intruding at a height of about $0.58\pm 0.03$ of the original plume height, consistent with new predictions we present based on classical plume theory. We generalise this result, and show that if the buoyancy flux at the source is composed of a fraction $F_{s}$ associated with the buoyancy of the source fluid, and a fraction $1-F_{s}$ from the particles, then following the sedimentation of the particles, the plume fluid intrudes at a height $(0.58+0.22F_{s}\pm 0.03)H_{t}$, where $H_{t}$ is the maximum plume height. This is key for predictions of the environmental impact of any material dissolved in the plume water which may originate from the particle load. We also show that the particles sediment at their fall speed through the fluid below the maximum depth of the plume as a cylindrical column whose area scales as the ratio of the particle flux at the source to the fall speed and concentration of particles in the plume at the maximum depth of the plume before it is arrested by the stratification. We demonstrate that there is negligible vertical transport of fluid in this cylindrical column, but a series of layers of high and low particle concentration develop in the column with a vertical spacing which is given by the ratio of the buoyancy of the particle load and the background buoyancy gradient. Small fluid intrusions develop at the side of the column associated with these layers, as dense parcels of particle-laden fluid convect downwards and then outward once the particles have sedimented from the fluid, with a lateral return flow drawing in ambient fluid. As a result, the pattern of particle-rich and particle-poor layers in the column gradually migrates upwards owing to the convective transport of particles between the particle-rich layers superposed on the background sedimentation. We consider the implications of the results for mixing by bubble plumes, for submarine blowouts of oil and gas and for the fate of plumes of waste particles discharged at the ocean surface during deep-sea mining.

This paper reports on weak quadratic interactions which can occur with two-dimensional waves on shallow water layers and in the capillary-gravity range on deep water layers. It supplies experimental support of theoretical predictions for resonant interactions, but, perhaps of more significance, it explores in detail interactions which occur under conditions near resonance.

Waves of approximately sinusoidal form are introduced on the surface of water in a long rectangular tank. For deep water a rapid distortion in the sinusoidal wave and sometimes additional crests are observed because of energy exchange among the first, second and third harmonics at frequencies where both surface tension and gravity are important (7·5–13 c/s). An even greater exchange of energy can be observed on shallow water layers at low frequencies. For example, a wave train with seven secondary crests can be observed when the wave maker is operated at 3·04 c/s in a water layer of 0·65 cm.

Measured amplitudes and phase angles of the Fourier components of the wave train are described by a system of equations using only quadratic interactions among participating harmonics. The exchange of energy among Fourier components under certain conditions is explained in terms of the rate of change of relative phase angles of the different harmonics.

The Phillips (1960) convected wave equation is employed in this paper to study aerodynamic noise emission processes in subsonic and supersonic shear layers. The wave equation in three spatial dimensions is first reduced to an ordinary differential equation by Fourier transformation, then solved via the WKBJ method. Three typical solutions are required for discussions in this paper. The current results are different from the classical conclusions. The effects of refraction, convection, Mach-number dependence and temperature dependence of turbulent noise emission are analysed in the light of solutions to the Phillips equation. Owing to the inherent restrictions of the WKBJ transformation, the results of the present paper should be applied to wave radiation from shear layers whose thickness is no less than approximately one quarter of a wavelength. Such a condition is satisfied for turbulent round jets with an exit velocity greater than 0·6 times the ambient speed of sound.

The steady speeds of the front of a gravity current and of an internal jump on a two-layer stratification are often sought in terms of the heights of the relatively dense fluid both up- and downstream from the front or jump, the height of the channel within which they flow, the densities of the two fluids and gravitational acceleration. In this study a unifying framework is presented for calculating the speeds by balancing mass and momentum fluxes across a control volume spanning the front or jump and by ensuring the assumed pressure field is single-valued, which is shown to be equivalent to forming a vorticity balance over the control volume. Previous models have assumed the velocity field is piecewise constant in each layer with a vortex sheet at their interface and invoked explicit or implicit closure assumptions about the dissipative effects to derive the speed. The new formulation yields all of the previously presented expressions and demonstrates that analysing the vorticity balance within the control volume is a useful means of constraining possible closure assumptions, which is arguably more effective than consideration of the flow energetics. However the new approach also reveals that a novel class of models may be developed in which there is shear in the velocity field in the wake downstream of the front or the jump, thus spreading the vorticity over a layer of non-vanishing thickness, rather than concentrating it into a vortex sheet. Mass, momentum and vorticity balances applied over the control volume allow the thickness of the wake and the speed of the front/jump to be evaluated. Results from this vortex-wake model are consistent with published numerical simulations and with data from laboratory experiments, and improve upon predictions from previous formulae. The results may be applied readily to Boussinesq and non-Boussinesq systems and because they arise as simple algebraic expressions, can be straightforwardly incorporated as jump conditions into spatially and temporally varying descriptions of the motion.

In a hypersonic boundary layer over a wall of variable curvature, the region most susceptible to Görtler vortices is the temperature adjustment layer sitting at the edge of the boundary layer. This temperature adjustment layer is also the most dangerous site for Rayleigh instability. In this paper, we investigate how the existence of large-amplitude Görtler vortices affects the growth rate of Rayleigh instability. The effects of wall cooling and gas dissociation on this instability are also studied. We find that all these mechanisms increase the growth rate of Rayleigh instability and are therefore destabilizing.

Instabilities and long-time evolution of gravity-capillary wavetrains (ripples) with moderate steepnesses (ε < 0.3) are studied experimentally and analytically. Wave-trains with frequencies of 8 ≤ f ≤ 25 Hz are generated mechanically in a channel containing clean, deep water; no artificial perturbations are introduced. Frequency spectra are obtained from in situ measurements; two-dimensional wavenumber spectra are obtained from remote sensing of the water surface using a high-speed imaging system. The analytical models are in viscid, uncoupled NLS (nonlinear Schrödinger) equations: one that describes the temporal evolution of longitudinal modulations and one that describes the spatial evolution of transverse modulations.

The experiments show that the evolution of wavetrains with sensible amplitudes and frequencies exceeding 9.8 Hz is dominated by modulational instabilities, i.e. resonant quartet interactions of the Benjamin–Feir type. These quartet interactions remain dominant even for wavetrains that are unstable to resonant triad interactions (f > 19.6 Hz) – if selective amplification does not occur (see Parts 1 and 2). The experiments further show that oblique perturbations with the same frequency as the underlying wavetrain, i.e. rhombus-quartet instabilities, amplify more rapidly and dominate all other modulational instabilities. The inviscid, uncoupled NLS equations predict the existence of modulational instabilities for wavetrains with frequencies exceeding 9.8 Hz, typically underpredict the bandwidth of unstable transverse modulations, typically overpredict the bandwidth of unstable longitudinal modulations, and do not predict the dominance of the rhombus-quartet instability. When the effects of weak viscosity are incorporated into the NLS models, the predicted bandwidths of unstable modulations are reduced, which is consistent with our measurements for longitudinal modulations, but not with our measurements for transverse modulations.

Both the experiments and NLS equations indicate that wavetrains in the frequency range 6.4–9.8 Hz are stable to modulational instabilities. However, in these experiments, wavetrains with sensible amplitudes excite one of the members of the Wilton ripples family. When second-harmonic resonance occurs, both the first-and second-harmonic wavetrains undergo rhombus-quartet instabilities. When third-harmonic resonance occurs, only the third-harmonic wavetrain undergoes rhombus-quartet instabilities.

After a brief description of the Milne generalization of the Galilean invariance group for the space–time of Newtonian kinematics, it is shown how the generalized Eulerian dynamical equations for the motion of a multiconstituent perfect (nonconducting) fluid can be expressed in terms of interior products of current 4-vectors with exterior derivatives of the appropriate 4-momentum 1-forms (whose role is central in this approach) in a fully covariant standard form whose structure is identical in the Newtonian case to that of the corresponding equation for the case of (special or general) relativistic perfect fluid mechanics. In addition to space–time covariance, this standard form exhibits chemical covariance in the sense that it is manifestly invariant under redefinition of the number densities of the independent conserved chemical constituents in terms of linear combinations of each other. It is shown how, in the strictly conservative case when no chemical reactions occur, this standard form, can be used (via the construction of suitably generalized Clebsch potentials) for setting up an Eulerian (fixed-point) variation principle in a form that is simultaneously valid for both Newtonian and relativistic cases.

According to the linearized water-wave theory, a localized pressure source travelling at constant speed on the surface of deep water generates the classical Kelvin ship-wave pattern, which follows behind the source and is confined within a sector of half-angle equal to 19.5°. In this paper, an asymptotic theory is developed which takes into account finite-amplitude and unsteady effects near the boundaries of the Kelvin sector, the so-called cusp lines, where the far-field wave disturbance takes the form of a modulated wavepacket. A nonlinear equation governing the spatial and temporal evolution of the wavepacket envelope is derived. It is shown that, for a pressure source turned on impulsively, a nonlinear steady state is reached. All unsteady effects are found in a region of finite extent which moves away from the source. Numerical calculations indicate that the steady-state nonlinear response is very similar to the steady-state linear response.

The variability of the physical thickness of fully developed turbulent interfaces is examined using scalar measurements in the outer far-field regions of round jets at a Reynolds number of $\Re\,{\sim}\,20\,000$ and Schmidt number of $\Sc\,{\sim}\,2000$. The interfacial thickness is considered in terms of the inverse magnitude of the scalar gradient across the interface and its relation to the scalar dissipation rate. The thickness variations and their conditional statistics are examined on outer interfaces at a resolution of ${\sim}\,1000^3$ with data that capture the full transverse extent of the flow. At the resolution of the present measurements, the interfaces are observed to exhibit highly intermittent thickness variations that consist of striation patterns, or undulations, along the interfacial surfaces. The conditional probability density of the interfacial thickness is found to be nearly lognormal, in agreement with previous studies. A new scale-local density measure of the interfacial thickness is formulated to examine the effects of coarse graining and the dependence of the thickness on resolution scale. The scale-local thickness density, conditionally averaged on the outer interfaces, is found to exhibit self-similarity in a range of resolved scales. This observation of self-similar behaviour, in conjunction with intermittency, provides a physical ingredient useful for studies of phenomena sensitive to turbulent interfaces.

Experiments on the collapse of non-colloidal and neutrally buoyant particles suspended in a Newtonian fluid column are presented, in which the initial volume fraction of the suspension $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ , the viscosity of the interstitial fluid $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{f}$ , the diameter of the particles $d$ and the mixing protocol, i.e. the initial preparation of the suspension, are varied. The temporal evolution of the slumping current highlights two main regimes: (i) an inertial-dominated regime followed by (ii) a viscous-dominated regime. The inertial regime is characterized by a constant-speed slumping which is shown to scale as in the case of a classical inertial dam-break. The viscous-dominated regime is observed as a decreasing-speed phase of the front evolution. Lubrication models for Newtonian and power-law fluids describe most of situations encountered in this regime, which strongly depends on the suspension parameters. The temporal evolution of the propagating front is used to extract the rheological parameters of the fluid models. At the early stages of the viscous-dominated regime, a constant effective shear viscosity, referred to as an apparent Newtonian viscous regime, is found to depend only on $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{f}$ for each mixing protocol. The obtained values are shown to be well fitted by the Krieger–Dougherty model whose parameters involved, say a critical volume fraction $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}_{m}$ and the exponent of divergence, depend on the mixing protocol, i.e. the microscale interaction between particles. On a longer time scale which depends on $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ , the front evolution is shown to slightly deviate from the apparent Newtonian model. In this apparent non-Newtonian viscous regime, the power-law model, indicating both shear-thinning and shear-thickening behaviours, is shown to be more appropriate to describe the front evolution. The present experiments indicate that the mixing protocol plays a crucial role in the selection of a shear-thinning or shear-thickening type of collapse, while the particle diameter $d$ and volume fraction $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ play a significant role in the shear-thickening case. In all cases, the normalized effective consistency of the power-law fluid model is found to be a unique function of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ . Finally, an apparent viscoplastic regime, characterized by a finite length spreading reached at finite time, is observed at high $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$ . This regime is mostly observed for volume fractions larger than $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}_{m}$ and up to a volume fraction $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}_{M}$ close to the random close packing fraction at which the initial column remains undeformed on opening the gate.

The flow past a cylinder in a rapidly rotating frame is described when the Rossby number Ro is O(E½), where E is the Ekman number. Previous studies of the configuration have noticed the development of a singularity within the E¼ layer at the rear stagnation point once the ratio Ro/E½ is larger than a critical value, and concluded that the boundary-layer flow is unsteady. In this paper a description of a steady boundary-layer flow for this parameter range is presented, showing the development of flow separation as Ro/E½ approaches a larger critical value. Details of the flow once the E½ layer has separated from the cylinder are also described.

This paper describes the flow of a homogeneous fluid contained in a rapidly rotating cylinder. The upper part of the cylinder rotates slightly faster, giving rise to a discontinuity in the sidewall velocity. The Stewartson-layer structure arising at the sidewall is essentially affected by this discontinuity. In contrast with previously studied problems, the E¼ layer (E is the Ekman number) is unable to perform the matching of the interior flow to the sidewall. It is shown that this matching is carried out partially by the E¼ layer and partially by the E1/3 layer, the latter accounting for the jump discontinuity. This paper also presents an analytical description of the flow in the singularity region near the sidewall discontinuity.

We present observations of the development of nonlinear surface gravity-wave groups. We calculate the amplitude and phase modulations using Hilbert-transform techniques. With increasing propagation distance and wave steepness, the phase modulation develops local phase reversals whose locations correspond to amplitude minima or nodes. The concomitant frequency modulation develops jumps or discontinuities. The observations are compared with recent similar results for wavetrains. The observations are modelled numerically using the cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The motivation is twofold: to examine quantitatively the evolution of phase as well as amplitude modulation and to test the inviscid predictions for the asymptotic behaviour of groups versus long-time observations. Although dissipation rules out recurrence, there is a long-time coherence of the groups. The phase modulation is found to distinguish between dispersive and soliton behaviour.

The transient response of a contained stratified rapidly rotating fluid to an impulsive surface stress has been studied theoretically and experimentally. The analysis predicts, and the experiments confirm, that for low values of the Burger number S the initial fluid adjustment within the E−½Ω−1 timescale is characterized by a barotropic response in which the magnitude of the interior velocity is independent of depth. (Here E and Ω are the Ekman number and rotation rate respectively.) The period of the barotropic response decreases as S increases. For large S, the barotropic flow adjusts subsequently to a baroclinic flow within the E−½Ω−1 scale, and during this later stage the excess and deficit in velocity in the lower and upper parts respectively of the fluid are removed. The baroclinic flow forced by the surface stress in these cases is thereby established in a timescale which is typically less than the spin-up time for a homogeneous fluid. The agreement between theory and experiment is shown to be qualitatively good, and the quantitative discrepancies observed between the predicted and measured interior velocities are discussed.

During the last few years, many experimental devices have been built in which strong shock waves are generated in gases by electromagnetic forces on currentcarrying gas particles. The general theory of these devices is discussed, taking external circuit inductance into account. It is shown that a shock wave of constant speed is finally attained. This shock wave is travelling at 90% of its final speed when the circuit inductance has increased to 3·0 times its initial value.