The axisymmetric boundary-layer separation of an incompressible impulsively started flow in a wavy-walled tube is analysed at moderate to high values of the Reynolds number. The investigation is carried out by numerical integration of either the Navier–Stokes equations or Prandtl's asymptotic formulation of the boundary-layer problem. The presence of an adverse pressure gradient induces reverse flow at the tube wall independently of the Reynolds number; its occurrence can be predicted by a timescale analysis. Following that, the viscous calculations show different dynamics depending on the Reynolds number. As the Reynolds number increases, the boundary layer has in a well-defined internal structure where longitudinal lengthscales become comparable with the viscous one. Thus the boundary-layer scaling fails locally, with a minimum of pressure inside the boundary layer itself. The formation of the primary recirculation is well captured by the asymptotic model which, however, is not able to describe the roll-up of the vortex structure inside the recirculating region. This inadequacy appears well before the flow evolves to the characteristic terminal singularity usually assumed as foreshadowing the vortex shedding phenomenon. The outcomes are compared with the existing results of analogous problems giving an overall agreement but improving, in some cases, the physical picture.

The upstream influence in an inviscid two-dimensional shear flow around a semicircular ‘cape’ (radius A) is computed using a piecewise uniform vorticity model of a boundary-layer current. The area of this layer upstream from the cape increases as the square root of time t when A is small, and increases as t for larger A. Complete blocking occurs when A is approximately three times the boundary-layer thickness, in which case all oncoming particles accumulate in a large upstream vortex. The numerical results obtained from the contour dynamical method also show the generation of large eddies downstream from the obstacle.

Treated in the present paper are the second-order effects, i.e. the effect of displacement thickness, longitudinal curvature, external shear and slip, on the two-dimensional laminar boundary-layer flow of incompressible fluid. The analysis is developed in terms of the stream-function co-ordinates proposed for the analysis of the rotational flow by the senior author previously. An inverse problem is set in the co-ordinates plane, and, within the framework of the second-order approximation, the problem is reduced to solving a parabolic partial differential equation for the total head. An implicit finite-difference scheme is then devised to solve the equation, and the practical computations are carried out for the flow along a flat plate or the one around a parabolic body, by making use of an electronic computer.

A nonlinear stability analysis of the viscous circular Couette flow to axisymmetric finite-amplitude perturbations under axial periodic boundary conditions is developed. The analysis is based on investigating the properties of a reduced Arnol’d energy-Casimir function $\mathscr{A}_{rd}$ of Wang (Phys. Fluids, vol. 2, 2009, 084104). A weighted kinetic energy of the perturbation, which has a form of ${\rm\Delta}\mathscr{A}_{rd}$, the difference between the reduced Arnol’d function and its base flow value, is used as a Lyapunov function. We show that all the inviscid flow effects as well as all the viscous-dependent terms that are related to the flow boundaries vanish. The evolution of ${\rm\Delta}\mathscr{A}_{rd}$ depends only on the viscous effects of the perturbation’s dynamics inside the flow domain. The requirement for the temporal decay of ${\rm\Delta}\mathscr{A}_{rd}$ leads to two novel sufficient conditions for the nonlinear stability of the circular Couette flow in response to axisymmetric perturbations. The linearized version of these conditions for infinitesimally small perturbations recovers the recent linear stability results by Kloosterziel (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 652, 2010, pp. 171–193). By examining the nonlinear stability conditions, we establish a definite operational region of the viscous circular Couette flow that is independent of the fluid viscosity. In this region of operation, the flow is nonlinearly stable in response to perturbations of any size, provided that the initial total circulation function is above a minimum level determined by the operational conditions of the base flow. Comparisons with historical studies show that our results shed light on the experimental measurements of Wendt (Ing.-Arch., vol. 4, 1933, pp. 577–595) and extend the classical nonlinear stability results of Serrin (Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal., vol. 3, 1959, pp. 1–13) and Joseph & Hung (Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal., vol. 44, 1971, pp. 1–22). When the flow is nonlinearly stable and evolves axisymmetrically for all time, then it always decays asymptotically in time to the circular Couette flow determined uniquely by the set-up of the rotating cylinders. Finally, we derive upper-bound estimates on the decay rate of finite-amplitude perturbations for the solid-body rotation flow between two coaxial rotating cylinders and for the circular Couette flow. We demonstrate via numerical simulations that the theoretical upper bound is relevant to the dynamics of various axisymmetric perturbations tested, where it is strictly obeyed. This present study provides new physical insights into a classical flow problem that was studied for many decades.

A series of experiments is described in which a fully-submerged circular duct situated with its axis vertical is subjected to regular incident waves. The resulting wave-interaction effects are defined in terms of reflexion coefficients derived from waveheight measurements, and a pressure coefficient derived from measurements of pressure in the depths of the enclosure. The experiments were conducted in a wide tank, so simulating open-sea conditions, and in a narrow tank where wall effects were important. The particular case when a transverse standing wave was induced above the duct was examined in detail.

These three-dimensional experiments complement a previous investigation into the performance of two-dimensional ducts and are of current practical significance in the context of sub-sea wave-energy conversion.

Detailed measurements of the flow over a compression corner were taken using hot-wire probes. The experiments were performed in supersonic flow (M = 2·64) under adiabatic wall conditions. The incompressible analogues of the boundary-layer profiles were obtained and their integral characteristics and shape factors correlated. Comparison with the self-similar profiles used by Lees & Reeves (1964) to describe interaction problems showed some similarities between the shape factors, but the measured negative shears in the separated bubble proved to be much less.

Large (gigajoule) amounts of energy can in principle be stored as kinetic energy in liquid metal circulating round a torus and can be extracted at the gigawatt level by Alfvén waves propagating along an imposed axial field. A major limitation on the energy that may be so stored is the disruption of these primary Alfvén waves by secondary flows in meridional planes, associated with out-of-balance centrifugal forces ahead of and behind the waves and non-uniform magnetic pressures at the wave fronts. Vorticity, created at the wave, itself propagates in secondary Alfvén waves.

This paper gives a linearized treatment of these secondary motions and the associated perturbations of the imposed axial field and compares the resulting disruption of the primary wave mode with crude estimates made in an earlier paper. The main case treated is the discharge of the stored energy into a matched resistor by an Alfvén step wave but the secondary consequences of standing primary waves are also explored. The nature of the solutions depends on the electromagnetic characteristics of the walls normal to the imposed field. The problem is mathematically interesting because it involves the joint solving of elliptic and hyperbolic equations that are coupled by the boundary conditions at these walls.