Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/iii/paper-65/3/c/solution

The proposed mixing length can be motivated as a local phenomenological estimate: on either half of a self-similar jet, the centreline supplies a distinguished reference plane, and an eddy at distance might retain momentum over a fixed fraction of that transverse distance. This gives
It is compatible with the dilation , and introduces no independent outer length. In the turbulent plane jet similarity regime its typical value at is , so the scaling from part (b) has .
This argument is a modeling assumption, not a physical necessity: a jet centreline is not a wall that prevents turbulent eddies from crossing it. Thus a mixing length vanishing there cannot automatically be justified throughout the core. Parts (e) and (f) exhibit the precise difficulty: the resulting finite-velocity similarity profile has singular centreline shear and zero shear at a finite free edge, contradicting the printed edge definition. The local dimensional motivation does not make all the stipulated global jet properties consistent.

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