Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-topics-in-fluid-mechanics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/3/c/i/solution

Assume and set . With independent of , balancing streamwise transport with transverse mixing gives a layer width proportional to . Write its constant slope as
Here is a spreading constant associated with the chosen definition of thickness; it is unrelated to the capillary in Question 1. The origin selects zero virtual-origin offset.
Define , , and introduce the stream function
This automatically satisfies incompressibility and yields
For the momentum equation, use and :
Because , the common coefficient cancels, giving the turbulent mixing-layer similarity equation
The boundary layer approximation also requires , consistently with the assumed slow spreading.

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