Proudman (1956) and Stewartson (1966) analyzed the dynamical properties of a fluid occupying the space between two concentric rotating spheres when the angular velocities of the spheres are slightly different, in other words, when the motion relative to a reference frame rotating with one of the spheres is due to an imposed azimuthal velocity which is symmetric about the equator. The consequences of forcing motion across the equator are explored here. Whereas the flow inside the cylinder [Cscr ] circumscribing the inner sphere and having generators parallel to the axis of rotation is similar to that which results when the driving is symmetric, the flow outside [Cscr ] is quite different. The Ekman layer on the outer sphere persists outside [Cscr ] - its dynamics is modified in the vicinity of the equator - and is instrumental in transferring fluid from one hemisphere to the other. The divergence of this Ekman layer causes slow, axial motion in the inviscid region outside [Cscr ]. On [Cscr ], two shear layers of thickness O(R−2/7) and O(R−1/3) (where R is the Reynolds number, assumed large) remove discontinuities in the flow field and return fluid from one hemisphere to the other (rather than one Ekman layer to the other as is the case when the driving is azimuthal).

The critical value RE of the Reynolds number R is predicted by the application of the energy theory. When R < RE, the buoyancy boundary layer is the unique steady solution of the Boussinesq equations and the same boundary conditions, and is, further, stable in a slightly weaker sense than asymptotically stable in the mean. The critical value RE is determined by numerically integrating the relevant Euler–Lagrange equations. Analytic lower bounds to RE are obtained. Comparisons are made between RE and RL, the critical value of R according to linear theory, in order to demark the region of parameter space, RE < R < RL, in which subcritical instabilities are allowable.

The conventional ‘bridge-feedback amplifier’ constant-temperature hot-wire anemometer is analysed to determine its static and dynamic response. The effects of moderate feedback amplifier gain, bridge imbalance, stray bridge reactance, amplifier offset voltage, lack of common mode rejection, amplifier frequency response and departure from constant transconducture are included. The root loci of the system are mapped out and the consequences of the analysis are discussed from the viewpoint of both the operator and the designer.

We consider the two-dimensional flow produced by the slow horizontal motion of a vertical plate of height 2b through a vertically stratified (ρ = ρ0(1 - βz)) non-diffusive viscous fluid. Our results are valid when U2 [Lt ] Ub/ν [Lt ] 1, where U is the speed of the plate and ν the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. Upstream of the body we find a blocking column of length 10−2b4/(Uν/βg. This column is composed of cells of closed streamlines. The convergence of these cells near the tips of the plate leads to alternate jets. The plate itself is embedded in a vertical shear layer of thickness (Uν/βg)1/3. In the upstream portion of this layer the vertical velocities are of order U and in the downstream portion of order Ub/(Uν/βg)1/3 ([Gt ] U). The flow is uniform and undisturbed downstream of this layer.

The critical value RE of the Reynolds number R is predicted by the application of the energy theory. When R < RE, the Ekman layer is the unique steady solution of the Navier-Stokes equations and the same boundary conditions, and is, further, stable in a slightly weaker sense than asymptotically stable in the mean. The critical value RE is determined by numerically integrating the relevant Euler-Lagrange equations. An analytic lower bound to RE is obtained. Comparisons are made between RE and RL, the critical value of R according to linear theory, in order to demark the region of parameter space, RE < R < RL, in which subcritical instabilities are allowable.

A comparison of laboratory experiments in a shallow-water tank driven by an oscillating piston and numerical solutions of the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation show that the latter can accurately describe slightly dissipative wavepropagation for Ursell numbers (h1L2/h03) up to 800. This is an input-output experiment, where the initial condition for the KdV equation is obtained from upstream (station 1) data. At a downstream location, the number of crests and troughs and their phases (or relative locations within a period) agree quantitatively with numerical solutions. The crest-to-trough amplitudes disagree somewhat, as they are more sensitive to dissipative forces. This work firmly establishes the soliton concept as necessary for treating the propagation of shallow-water waves of moderate amplitude in a low-dissipation environment.

Repeated observations of dye plumes on Lake Huron are interpreted according to the theoretical proposals of Richardson (1926) and Batchelor (1952) about the characteristics of a dispersing cloud of marked fluid within a field of homogeneous turbulence. The results show the average of several instantaneous concentration distributions about their centre of gravity to be approximately Gaussian and the distance-neighbour function to be of approximately Gaussian form. The data are consistent with the theoretical description given by Batchelor, namely, \[ q(y,t) = (2\pi\overline{y^2})^{-\frac{1}{2}}\exp (-y^2/2\overline{y^2}),\quad (\overline{y^2} = (\frac{2}{3}\alpha t)^3), \] where q(y, t) is the distance-neighbour function and α is the constant of the ‘4/3-power law’. The average value of α is estimated to be 0·12 cm2/3 sec−1. The rate of turbulent energy dissipation in the near-surface currents of Lake Huron is estimated as ε ∼ 2·1 × 10−3 cm2sec−3.

This paper presents a laboratory study of the dynamic properties of air flow over small wind-generated water waves. On the basis of measurements of mean velocity profiles, turbulent intensity profiles and energy spectra, the detailed structure of turbulent wind immediately above and between the crests of progressive water waves has been examined.

The velocity sensor (a hot-wire anemometer) was fastened to a self-adjusting positioner to measure instantaneous air velocities at a fixed distance from a moving water surface. The waves had a dominant frequency, 2·4 Hz, and a ratio of wave celerity and air friction velocity close to one. With the aid of a digital computer, the desired parameters of air flow were obtained by a statistical technique which was developed to sample and average simultaneous recordings of water surface displacements and instantaneous air velocities.

The results of the wind field measurements over representative waves indicate that, on the average, the air flow separates from the wavy water surface just behind crests, and reattaches somewhere on the windward face of the next wave. The measured turbulent quantities consistently show the characteristics of separated air flow. The separation phenomenon suggests that, without some modification, the Benjamin-Miles shearing flow mechanism is inapplicable to the growth of fully-developed small water waves, at least when the ratio of the phase speed to air friction velocity is of order unity. The observed flow configuration tends to support the separation mechanism of energy transfer originally outlined by Jeffreys and later explored further by Stewart and Deardorff.

Mean properties of the turbulent air flow referred to the mean water level were obtained by continuous sampling of the air flow over many waves with a sensing probe, either at a fixed distance from the mean water level (fixed probe measurement) or at a constant distance from the moving water surface (moving probe measurement). It was found that for continuously averaged measurements, the fixed probe yielded results which deviate less from the local mean than the moving probe results. This holds for the mean velocity distributions and especially for the turbulent quantities.

A theoretical and experimental study is made of the failure of electrical insulation in a layer of dielectric fluid filling a circular hole in a horizontal solid dielectric sheet. A potential difference is applied between conducting fluids which bound the fluid and solid dielectric layer above and below. It is observed that a critical potential difference is reached at which the fluid dielectric becomes statically unstable under the action of surface tension and normal electrical stresses at its interfaces. When this potential is reached the dielectric fluid insulation fails.

The critical potential difference is calculated by both an approximate and an exact theory. The approximate theory ignores the changes in the electrostatic field within the solid dielectric by allowing a charge distribution at the curved surface of the hole. Comparison with the results of an exact theory shows that such an approximation introduces only small errors in the calculated points of transition to instability.

It is shown that failure may take the form of a symmetric (sausage) mode of displacement, or an antisymmetric (kink) mode, depending on whether the radius of the hole is greater or less than approximately the depth of the layer respectively. The two forms of failure were indicated in the experiments, and the observed critical voltages are in good agreement with those predicted by the theory.