Synopsis for C6.4a: Topics in Fluid Mechanics

Level: M-level Method of Assessment: Written examination,
Weight: Half-unit. OSS paper code 2A74.

Recommended Prerequisites

B6 fluid mechanics.

Overview

The course will expand and illuminate the `classical' fluid mechanics taught in the third year course B6, and illustrate its modern application in a number of different areas in industry and geoscience.

Synopsis

Thin film flows: coatings and foams. Lubrication theory: gravity flows, Marangoni effects. Droplet dynamics, contact lines, menisci. Drying and wetting.

Convection and solidification: Earth's mantle and core; magma chambers; sea ice. Stability, boundary layers, parameterised convection.

Rotating flows: atmosphere and oceans. Waves, geostrophy, quasi-geostrophy, baroclinic instability.

1. J.S.Turner, Buoyancy Effects in Fluids (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1973).
2. A.E. Gill, Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics (Academic Press, San Diego, 1982).
3. J. Pedlosky, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1979).
4. D.A.Drew and S.L. Passman,Theory of Multicomponent Fluids (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1999).
5. L.G Leal, Advanced Transport Phenomena,(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007).
6. D. Weaire and S.Hutzler, The Physics of Foams (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999).

Further Reading

1. G.K.Batchelor, H.K.Moffatt and M.,G.Worster (eds.), Perspectives in Fluid Dynamics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000).