Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 68 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Take and , with pointing along the imposed shear stress, and put . Relative to the upper fluid's hydrostatic reference, the hydrostatic pressure in the current is . Thus the horizontal pressure gradient is . The lubrication theory momentum balance, lower no-slip boundary condition, and imposed upper shear stress giveIts depth-integrated volume flux isDefine and . The continuity equation gives the shear-driven viscous gravity current equationThe two terms have opposite roles: imposed shear stress carries fluid downstream, whereas the hydrostatic pressure gradient spreads it from thick regions towards thin ones.
For the approximation, a representative horizontal velocity is , with vertical velocity . Small slopes require . Horizontal fluid inertia relative to vertical viscous resistance is , where . Hence sufficient small parameters, expressed without an unknown velocity, areFor the hydrostatic pressure and normal-stress approximation also require . Its gravity-driven part is already ; its shear-driven part addsThis condition controls viscous normal stress, vertical viscous corrections and the normal projection of shear at a slightly tilted interface relative to . With it and the previous inertia bounds, vertical inertia is small as well. Time variations here are on the transport timescale ; separately imposed rapid forcing would need its own unsteady inertia bound. A small ordinary Reynolds number is a stronger sufficient restriction, but the reduced inertia ratios above are what the thin-layer momentum balance directly requires.
In the steady far-downstream regime, cross-stream derivatives dominate gravity-driven spreading. Dropping the smaller downstream gravity flux leavesWrite and let be a typical central thickness. Balance gives , while conservation of the source volume flux gives . Therefore the downstream similarity of a shear-driven gravity current hasThe omitted downstream gravity flux relative to the imposed shear flux is , so this approximation is self-consistent in the stated regime.
For the full profile put . Then andThis is a porous medium equation with downstream distance as its evolution coordinate. Conservation of and a similarity solution , , givewhere symmetry gives zero integration constant at . Inside the positive region, , so . Requiring the total downstream volume flux to be fixes the coefficient:Consequentlyfor , with outside. The squared height is a parabolic Barenblatt solution; the height cross-section is a semicircular profile after rescaling its axes. The cross-stream volume flux vanishes at the edges even though the height slope becomes singular there. The profile describes the outer lubrication theory region, not a resolved microscopic front.
Near the point source the two horizontal dimensions are comparable, say . Upstream spreading arrests where outward gravity-driven volume flux balances downstream shear-driven volume flux:Eliminating givesThis is a scaling estimate, not a determination of a numerical prefactor. The associated depth is . The same horizontal scale is obtained by setting in the downstream similarity solution, confirming where that solution fails.
For the line source the steady volume flux per unit width is . On the downstream constant-height branch, gives . Upstream there is no net flux through the finite nose, so . Thus , and continuity of height at the source givesThe line-source upstream reach under imposed shear is thereforeIn the upstream part, shear-driven and gravity-driven volume fluxes cancel. The volume flux per unit width jumps by exactly at the source. As in the point-source profile, the square-root nose is a formal outer solution with an unresolved steep front; its finite upstream reach follows from flux balance, not from assuming a small slope all the way to the nose.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 69 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use the well-mixed natural ventilation model for a distributed floor source. Let the building height be , its volume be , its temperature excess be , and the exterior mass density be . Let be the coefficient of thermal expansion, so reduced gravity is . Convert the total heat input to the temperature-volume flux , where is specific heat capacity. If the quoted heat flux is per floor area, first multiply it by that area.
For effective opening area for pressure-driven ventilation, define the equal-opening hydraulic coefficient such that the signed throughflow obeys , with the total driving pressure divided by mass density. In the effective-area convention of question 6, each opening has discharge , so . The usual physical-area orifice law instead gives ; that prefactor does not affect the stability conclusions.
Set and . Positive denotes entry at the floor and exit at the roof. hydrostatic pressure and wind combine to giveBecause the inflowing air is at exterior temperature in either direction, the heat budget isThe well-mixed ventilation temperature balance at steady state is thereforeAll roots must satisfy and their appropriate flow-direction inequality; squaring a pressure relation without imposing those conditions could add spurious branches.
The assisting case has a unique positive solution and it is stable. For opposing wind, define . There is always one solution with , a buoyancy-dominated upward flow. Below , the heat-removal curve is . It is zero at both endpoints, and its maximum occurs at :For there are two downward-flow roots as well as the upward-flow root. Equivalently, setting and , the equilibrium curve isFor linear stability analysis of the opposing-wind ventilation bistability, linearize the heat budget: the eigenvalue is . The cooler downward root has and , so it is stable. The warmer downward root has and , so it is unstable and separates the two basins. The upward root has and is stable. At the two downward roots merge at a saddle-node bifurcation; above that value only the upward equilibrium remains.
For ventilation switching under wind and heating changes, increasing wind pressure or decreasing heat input both reduce , so both can create the pair of wind-driven equilibria. They nevertheless have different physical and transient effects. On the hot upward branch, implicit differentiation of shows that increasing increases , while decreasing decreases . Both reduce the upward ventilation rate, but only a wind change shifts .
Under slow parameter variation, a state follows its current stable branch while that branch persists; the upward branch does not disappear when wind increases or heating decreases. A sufficiently large abrupt wind increase can raise beyond the current temperature and place that state below the new unstable threshold, causing flow reversal and cooling towards the wind-dominated equilibrium. A jump insufficient to cross its basin boundary returns to the upward equilibrium.
At fixed , reducing a still-positive heat input cannot force an initially upward-flow state through : at that boundary the temperature balance has . Thus heat reduction alone does not cause that reversal in this model. Conversely, decreasing wind or increasing heat from the stable downward branch eventually destroys it at the fold and forces a switch to the upward branch, giving history dependence. Wind strengthening and heat reduction have the same effect on the steady dimensionless control parameter, but not the same temperature change or switching dynamics. These stability statements use quasi-steady opening flow and a single well-mixed temperature; other stratification or airflow-inertia models require their own stability analysis.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 69 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Let be floor inflow and roof outflow. Use effective-area discharge , matching the factors in the supplied relations. With negligible source volume, both equal . The lower region has exterior mass density while the warm upper layer has reduced gravity and depth . hydrostatic pressure therefore supplies a total opening pressure head . Equal openings sharing equal discharge take half each, givingSteady lower-layer volume conservation sets this ventilation rate equal to the entrained turbulent plume flux at the interface, . Upper-layer buoyancy conservation gives . These are the required balances for displacement ventilation:Eliminating and gives the displacement-ventilation interface height equationThe left side is strictly increasing from zero to infinity, so there is one interface height. It depends on opening geometry and plume entrainment, not on ; the resulting and throughflow do depend on .
For finite source volume , conservation instead gives . The two pressure drops are no longer equal:Let be a physically entraining source plume: and for . Its interface balance is . Therefore, as reaches zero, a positive-depth lower layer has no replenishment and cannot remain steady: this is no steady displacement layer without ambient supply. The limiting interface is . At the threshold and , and the entire hydrostatic head drives the roof discharge. HenceThis is source-volume blocking of displacement ventilation. The half-head factor of the negligible-source state must not be kept after the floor inflow vanishes. In the usual physical-area convention , the equivalent formula is .
The quoted pure-plume law cannot be used unmodified down to the origin for a source with nonzero volume: it would incorrectly give zero flux there. A compatible finite-source example uses a virtual origin,It recovers the supplied pure-plume limit when , and gives the same blocking threshold. The complete finite- interface trajectory depends on that plume model, but the threshold needs only source-volume conservation and positive entrainment. For , the assumed steady regime with a lower inflow no longer exists.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 71 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Take for the repulsive molecular interaction, as the common reference pressure, and let be the ice-film temperature. All ratios involving use its absolute value, approximately , rather than the numerical Celsius value zero. The premelting film permits water to reach and freeze at the bottom of the ice while the upper surface is displaced upward without freezing there.
For equal phase mass densities, equality of the solid and liquid chemical potentials gives the Clapeyron pressure relation for equal-density phases. Indeed, and , so expansion around coexistence at yieldsThis is a pressure difference between phases, not a same-pressure Clausius-Clapeyron slope. The molecular disjoining pressure supports this difference:Treat the normal solid load as its effective pressure in this planar model. The gravitational load corresponding to hydrostatic pressure is , so . Refer the bath pressure to the sheet's upper gravitational datum, or neglect the sheet-scale hydrostatic head. The Darcy flow law then gives the upward supply and the ice growth rateHere is permeability of a porous medium, is dynamic viscosity, and equal densities identify supplied liquid volume with added ice volume to leading order in .
To recover the printed law, use the usual hydraulic control of frost heave idealization: the sheet's top is at , the liquid film and ice have a common thermal conductivity , and the flow is slow enough that latent-heat production is small compared with the conductive heat passing through the layer. In addition to a quasi-steady ice temperature field, this needsThe leading heat flux is consequently continuous through the film and ice. Their thermal resistances giveLet , a pressure scale. The thermomolecular pressure and the molecular law then giveSubstitute this pressure into the Darcy flow law:The first term draws water toward the undercooled ice; the increasing gravitational load eventually cancels it.
Quasi-steady temperature alone is not sufficient to fix this exact prefactor. With film conductivity , ice conductivity , and nonnegligible latent heat, the appropriate additional balance isTogether with the Darcy equation, this is the implicit growth model. Even in the slow-flow limit, a conductivity ratio changes the leading driving pressure by . Taking is a counterexample to obtaining the printed prefactor from quasi-steadiness alone. Thus the boxed equation is the intended equal-conductivity, thin-film, hydraulically limited model, rather than a consequence of only the stated quasi-steady assumption. This distinction is the heat-balance correction to a premelted-film growth model.
For that reduced equation defineThe scale balances against ; has units of pressure times length to the power , so is a length and is a time. They yield
Set . The equation becomes linear:For initial thickness , the explicit solution of gravity-limited frost heave isThe usual zero-initial-thickness sketch usesIts early and late behaviour areFor , the derivative is positive and , so the curve is increasing and concave downward. It approaches the stable thickness exponentially. Initial thickness above instead relaxes downward; at it is stationary.
Exact reduced premelting growth from zero thickness with the early power law and late exponential approach to equilibrium
. The singular slope at zero belongs to the formal reduced solution. Since , the thin-film assumption eventually fails as . The early power law therefore describes an intermediate continuum regime after any microscopic startup, not arbitrarily early physical times. A finite positive supplies a regular initial condition when that regime begins. Gravity limits the ultimate thickness; molecular suction and the Darcy resistance set the growth toward it.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 4 18B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Apply mass conservation to a fixed horizontal region . The layer mass is and the outward horizontal flux is . The divergence theorem and arbitrary choice of giveThis depth-integrated law retains free-surface motion; neglecting the vertical velocity in horizontal momentum is not the assumption that the depth cannot change.
Take the free-surface pressure to be constant. hydrostatic pressure gives , so the horizontal pressure forces are . Linearization about a resting layer gives the linearized shallow water equationsTaking the curl of the momentum equations yields . Combining with continuity gives the linearized shallow-water potential-vorticity anomalyFor , . Taking the divergence of momentum gives . Eliminate the divergence with continuity to obtainFor , substitution of gives the inertia-gravity wave dispersion relationThe associated purely oscillatory velocity field isThese formulas satisfy all three linearized equations and the zero-anomaly condition. A separately added spatially uniform inertial oscillation is not part of this monochromatic wave.
To first order in amplitude evaluate the wave at a particle's equilibrium coordinate , so . Integrating its velocity gives displacements relative to the orbit centreThese are particle ellipses for rotating shallow-water waves, with axis ratio . For the stipulated positive signs, the velocity at phases points respectively right, up, left, down, with magnitudes . The particle orbits are clockwise as time advances, since the phase decreases.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 73 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Take positive upwards and let denote axial body force per unit volume. With inertia and surface tension omitted, the extensional equations for a slender Newtonian column areMass conservation gives the first equation. The second uses the Trouton ratio three: the leading radial velocity is , the radial normal traction gives , and the axial stress is . An axial control volume balance then gives the displayed equation. The approximation requires a slender column and slowly varying radius.
Let . Since the container base is closed, the total volume flux at every section is zero. The column carries flux , so the annulus carries and has mean speed of order . Its interfacial shear stress is therefore of order . Transmitting this stress through the core produces an axial velocity variation of order . The plug-flow criterion for a column in a low-viscosity annulus is consequently
Use modified pressure , removing the annular fluid's hydrostatic pressure. In a local planar gap, with at the column and at the container wall, lubrication theory givesThe required return flux per unit circumference is to leading order in . Its pressure-driven component is larger than the Couette component by , so the annular return flow around a slumping column givesThe annular shear contribution to the integrated axial force is smaller than this pressure-gradient term by . Retaining the leading terms and substituting gives the dimensional equationsThe boundary conditions are at the base and at the free upper end; the latter expresses zero excess axial extensional stress.
For , defineThis function records the leading thin-annulus resistance; differences from curvature and the Couette term enter at the already neglected relative order . Choose the extensional screening length of a slumping column and the associated scales asHere denotes the initial annular gap in this question. With , and , the dimensional equations reduce to
Initially and , so , with and . The initial velocity profile of an annularly confined column isThe column thickens everywhere below its stress-free top, while that initial thickening rate is zero at the top.
For a tall column, , the limiting forms away from exponentially small end corrections areThe bulk falls at approximately , where excess weight balances annular hydraulic resistance. Extensional stresses adjust this velocity to zero in a basal boundary layer of thickness ; almost all thickening occurs there.
For a short column on this scale, , while still slender, the limits areThe annular-resistance term is small, so excess weight is balanced predominantly by extensional viscous stress. The top speed is , recovering the zero-annular-viscosity result. Thus is the vertical distance over which extensional stress communicates the basal constraint before annular resistance screens it. The sketches below use separate natural normalizations for the two limits.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 73 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
At leading order in the lubrication approximation, surface arclength is horizontal distance. An insoluble surfactant is transported by the surface velocity, without bulk exchange or diffusion. Conservation of insoluble surfactant on a moving interface therefore becomesThe local hydrostatic pressure and capillary normal stress giveSolve with no-slip boundary condition at and Marangoni stress . The velocity, surface velocity and volume flux per unit width areMass conservation, , yields the thin-film equations with insoluble surfactant:and the corresponding surfactant equation isThe hydrostatic and capillary terms thus affect both the film flux and the surface transport, with different coefficients.
For finite-mass Marangoni spreading on a liquid film, first neglect both pressure-gradient terms. If the spread has size , then and , giving surface speed . Equating to this speed givesSet exactly as a similarity scale, and writeOn the positive half of the pool, substitution produces two ordinary differential equations:Symmetry fixes the flux integration constant in the second equation to zero, giving wherever . Substitution into the first equation gives . Thus the linear similarity profiles for surfactant spreading have the formThe concentration vanishes at the moving front. The two integral constraints are total surfactant mass and conservation of the fluid volume relative to the undisturbed layer:The first gives ; the second gives . Therefore . In physical variables, the solution isOutside the pool the leading outer solution has , . In particular, : the subscript means the one-sided limit just behind the front. As a consistency check, the surface speed there is and the fluid jump satisfies the moving-front mass conservation condition. This ideal outer solution has a height jump from to .
That jump cannot persist in a physical interface with nonzero gravity or surface tension. Across a smoothing region of width , changes by . The Marangoni flux scales as . At , its balance with the capillary flux gives capillary smoothing of a Marangoni front:Here the surface tension approaches at the surfactant-free edge. The assumed concentration-gradient scale is even inside the smoothing region.
When gravity dominates capillarity, the hydrostatic flux is . The same balance gives gravity smoothing of a Marangoni front:The gravity-dominated condition is , the square of the capillary length. The printed condition omits ; the expression above restores dimensional consistency.
This width grows faster than . It becomes comparable with the pool size whenThe time is a scaling estimate, so numerical factors cannot be fixed by the width balance. For , the sharp-front similarity profile no longer describes the film: hydrostatic pressure levels the layer over the whole pool, and its thickness tends towards with an increasingly small depression beneath the surfactant. The surface can still spread by Marangoni stress while a hydrostatic-pressure-driven return flow nearly cancels the net film flux. In this gravity-levelled surfactant film, gives , so the fractional height variation is of order .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 73 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use pressure with the ambient hydrostatic pressure removed, and let be the pressure below the falling sphere minus that above it. Away from the sphere the tube flow is Hagen-Poiseuille flow. The upper and lower clear lengths add to to leading order in , so their pressure drops add:The large exterior reservoir returns this flux with negligible pressure loss compared with the long narrow tube. The sphere is assumed far enough from the ends that entrance effects and its occupied length give only lower-order corrections.
Now use a frame translating downwards with the sphere, and take positive upwards from its center. The sphere is stationary and the tube wall moves upwards with speed . The narrow gap isIt has axial length scale , making lubrication theory appropriate. The sphere-frame flux in a tube is constant: the upward relative flux through the whole section is , so its flux per unit circumference isWith on the sphere and on the wall, Couette-Poiseuille flow in a thin gap givesSince , the pressure-jump relation isThe parabolic inner gap can be extended to infinite because these integrals are dominated by . The lubrication resistance integrals for a nearly occluding sphere areSetting evaluates , , , hence
For the force, enclose the fluid between sections just above and below the sphere, including the annular layer. The net upward pressure force is . The tube wall exerts upward shear traction on this fluid; the sphere exerts a downward force equal to the upward hydrodynamic force on itself. From the gap solution,The axial control volume force balance therefore gives the control-volume drag formula for a sphere in a tube:Using a control volume avoids having to integrate the curved-sphere normal pressure and tangential shear separately.
With , , , , and , the three flux/pressure equations becomeSolving these linear relations givesThe force relation is . Substitution first yieldsBecause and , the terms and are lower order than . Keeping the uniformly relevant leading terms givesThe squared is essential; replacing it by would give the wrong sign and scaling. This establishes the three drag regimes for a nearly occluding sphere.
For ,The sphere nearly carries the tube's fluid down with it: the far-field flux is close to the piston displacement rate. The relative annular leakage is small in total volume, and the dominant force comes from the local annular shear term. The pressure force associated with the overall tube resistance is smaller.
For ,The flow remains approximately piston-like, but the dominant force is now the pressure needed to drive Hagen-Poiseuille flow through the long clear tube. Both displayed terms in are retained because their relative size changes inside this regime without producing an additional leading drag regime.
For ,The large tube resistance makes its net through-flow negligible. The sphere's displaced fluid instead passes upwards relative to it through the thin annular gap, with gap velocity of order . Its pressure drop and resulting pressure force dominate.
Finally consider two identical co-moving spheres, with nonoverlapping lubrication regions and the same total clear-tube length to leading order. The common through-flux is not doubled. In the middle regime it is still approximately , so the same total tube pressure drop is shared equally between the two identical spheres. The load sharing between co-moving spheres in a tube gives half the single-sphere force on each sphere in regime (ii). In regime (i), drag is set locally by the nearly pressure-balanced annular shear and is unchanged on each sphere. In regime (iii), each sphere must pass essentially its own displacement flux through its annular gap, giving the same local pressure drag as before; adding another pressure jump changes the already small tube flux but not either leading drag. The force is unchanged in regimes (i) and (iii).
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 74 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Boussinesq approximation requires . The reference mass density can then be used in inertia, while the small density excess is retained in buoyancy. Dilute particle volume fraction alone does not suffice if is exceptionally large. Define , so the reduced gravity is .
The shallow water equations require depth small compared with the horizontal evolution scale, weak vertical acceleration and approximately hydrostatic pressure. Here the ambient is deep and quiescent, so its leading contribution is a hydrostatic reference pressure; the excess pressure in the layer is . The model also needs nearly uniform streamwise velocity across the section and the stated absence of secondary circulation. The advancing gravity current nose is a separate region where these assumptions can fail.
A nearly uniform particle volume fraction can be maintained by turbulent mixing with eddy diffusivity , provided and the mixing time is short compared with horizontal advection and bulk evolution. Equivalently, keeps the bulk settling-induced gradient small. The particles should respond rapidly enough to follow the mixing motions. A thin boundary layer adjacent to the absorbing bed or walls need not be well mixed.
Uniform bulk concentration does not imply zero sedimentation. The relative downward particle velocity still supplies a particle deposition flux of approximately to an absorbing boundary. Mixing redistributes the remaining particles and maintains the bulk concentration profile while its overall level decreases; it need not suspend every particle indefinitely. Deposition requires negligible resuspension in the model.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 74 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The channel is prismatic: its width depends on height, not on . A layer of depth has cross-sectional area . Volume conservation gives . With , the integrated excess hydrostatic pressure force isThus the streamwise momentum balance is . Under the specified vertical-settling approximation, the horizontal projection of the depositional boundary has width , so the particle balance is , where is the downward speed magnitude. The prismatic triangular-channel shallow water equations are thereforeThe pressure coefficient is the section-weighted mean of . The factor two in deposition comes from top width divided by area. There is no streamwise widening term, because is constant along the channel.
Define the positive characteristic speed scale . In variables the equations becomeThe coefficient matrix of this hyperbolic system has eigenvalues . Hence the three characteristic families areAlong , the concentration equation is the ordinary differential equation . Along , the left eigenvectors give the sedimenting triangular-channel characteristic compatibility equationsHere every derivative in a given equation follows that characteristic family, and . These three compatibility equations form the characteristic description; they are not three independent closed equations for all fields on any one curve. In particular, are not conserved Riemann invariants when the concentration varies: its differential and the deposition source must both be retained. The description assumes ; the dry or zero-buoyancy limit is degenerate.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 78 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Choose at the contact line, with pointing into the mountains and the plate moving in the positive direction at speed . Let be the plate. For viscous mountain spreading over an underthrust plate, the lubrication approximation assumes slow horizontal variation, hydrostatic pressure , and . Impose no slip at the plate and zero tangential traction at the free surface. Without sediment,The horizontal mass flux is . For a steady mountain range with no mountain material entering across its contact line, . Therefore , and the vanishing height at the bare contact gives the mountain profileThe large slope extremely close to is an inner region where the lubrication approximation ceases to be quantitatively valid.
Now let sediment occupy and mountains , with the mountain-material thickness and . Equal densities make the same in both layers. Continuity of velocity and shear stress at , no slip at and zero shear at give the shear stress throughout. Thus the two velocity profiles areTheir volume fluxes areMultiplying by gives the separate mass fluxes. The coupled conservation of mass equations areThis is the sediment-lubricated viscous mountain model. It includes shear-driven transport by the plate and pressure-driven gravitational spreading.
In steady state the mountain-material flux is zero, while the upstream uniform sediment layer has . For this givesEliminating proves the algebraic thickness relation:At the contact , the last coefficient must vanish. The nonzero physical solution is consequentlyThe condition comes from the limiting zero flux per unit mountain thickness, not merely the automatic vanishing of at . The surface slope anywhere under the mountains isLower sediment viscosity flattens the near-contact surface, while its contact height remains . Far inside, where , the mountains recover the bare-layer slope scaling. The formulas determine the mountain profile by the algebraic relation plus this first-order equation. For example, put and ; the physical root satisfies , taking for . This selects the branch smoothly connected to the contact.
In front of the contact, , there is only sediment, so andDefine and . Integrating from the contact yields the upstream basin profile of a sediment-lubricated mountain:Equivalently, on . The inverse is uniquely defined because ; an elementary explicit inverse is unnecessary. This profile tends to as , approaches at the contact and has the same surface slope there as the mountain branch. Its far-field excess decays exponentially on length scale , which increases as the sediment viscosity decreases.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 329 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
In the surfactant transport with exchange relaxation, is the material derivative following an interfacial material element. The term accounts for dilution by tangential stretching, while accounts for changing area through normal motion and curvature. The surface diffusion term redistributes surfactant down concentration gradients. The exchange term relaxes its concentration towards , through adsorption or desorption from a surrounding reservoir, on time scale .
In the bubble frame the spherical interface is stationary and impermeable. A steady material derivative is . For a linear response in the rising speed this and are second order, whereas stretching of is first order. ThusRotational symmetry, linear response to , and zero normal velocity allow only , where is the surface tangent projector. This is the dipolar, axisymmetric sector; axisymmetry alone, without the linear-response assumption, would allow other angular dependence.
On a sphere and . Applying the surface tangent projector to the derivative gives the sphere surface derivative identitiesFor example, taking a second surface divergence of the first identity yields the third. Equivalently, the components of are degree-one spherical harmonics. Hence a dipolar surfactant distribution solves the linear equation:The required smallness condition is . Surface diffusion or exchange must smooth the concentration faster than it is redistributed by the actual interfacial velocity. We require , and ; with neither process there is no such steady linear balance at nonzero . A small capillary number also justifies the spherical approximation.
Take the normal from the inner bubble to the outer liquid, define , and set . The interfacial stress balance with variable surface tension isBecause and , its tangential part becomesThis is a Marangoni stress: surface-tension gradients oppose the clean-bubble circulation.
Use the Unscaled Papkovich–Neuber representation, and . The constant vector potential gives . In the decaying, linear axisymmetric sector, a vector monopole and scalar dipole provide the two constants needed at the sphere; other equivalent potential choices amount to a representation freedom. The PDF potential contains the factor omitted in the TeX aid. With that factor restored, the exterior velocity isAt the interface, no penetration gives , and the tangential velocity gives . Using the traction coefficient printed in equation (3), the tangential stress condition gives . The requested algebraic answers are therefore
There is a factor-of-two error in the PDF traction. Direct differentiation of the preceding velocity with the Newtonian fluid stress tensor givesrather than its printed coefficient . In particular the tangential traction is . Keeping the same definition of , the physically consistent translating surfactant-coated bubble instead has andThe two sets must not be silently conflated. As a useful check, the no-slip limit has the usual total Stokes flow drag with the corrected traction; the printed traction would double it.
Both versions give , , when : the interface is tangentially stress-free and circulates as a clean inviscid bubble. For , , , : the interface is immobile in the bubble frame and behaves as a no-slip sphere. The Marangoni stress remains finite because has a nonzero limit. The concentration smallness condition still has to hold; large is not by itself a complete linearization criterion.
The normal component is balanced by the inner gas pressure and the normal capillary stress , including the variation of , together with the hydrostatic pressure difference responsible for buoyancy. A spatially uniform inner pressure alone cannot balance the dipolar traction. To make the normal stress balance on a translating bubble explicit, let be the outer-minus-inner mass density. After removing the equilibrium Laplace pressure, the corrected outer normal traction has dynamic part . Its degree-one balance isThus, if a terminal speed is desired, , interpolating between the clean-bubble and rigid-sphere speeds. A degree-one shape displacement is merely a translation of the sphere, so the balance determines its rise speed, rather than a dipolar shape distortion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 329 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For an infinite blade, the steady moving-frame flux is constant and its upstream value is . The infinite-blade gravity pile therefore satisfies , or . Integrating givesAn additive constant in simply shifts . The head at the blade, and hence , must supply the pressure difference that makes the flux beneath the blade equal to the incoming flux. For the deep part has , followed by a smooth transition to with exponentially small, proportional to . Thus is an approximate nose coordinate, not a sharp front of the exact solution.
Near the rounded edge the parabolic lubrication gap is . In the blade frame the floor moves at and the blade is stationary. The Couette-Poiseuille flow in a thin gap has flux . Let be positive leakage towards the rear, and let . The narrow-gap integrals areIntegrating the pressure gradient gives , so the squeegee gap leakage flux isThe first term is the floor-driven contribution. For the steady infinite blade, , so . The hydrostatic pressure difference is the height difference at the two sides. A fully developed rear layer of thickness has moving-frame flux ; hence , andThe large head eventually forces all the arriving film beneath an infinite blade. Taking a perfectly closed gap instead would eliminate this steady state.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 329 4 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Write , , and choose the common undisturbed interface pressure . The hydrostatic pressure is in the upper fluid and in the lower fluid. Continuity of hydrostatic pressure across both current interfaces givesThus and . This isostatic depth partition of an interfacial current expresses local vertical buoyancy balance: a displaced column with an imbalance would move vertically until the partition was restored. With the hydrostatic pressure subtracted, the pressure within the current is , whereThe equivalent body force is outward for a profile decreasing with . Its magnitude is ; the derivative without an absolute value is a signed quantity.
For an ambient-controlled interfacial plug current, integrating the body force through depth gives radial force per area . The ambient Stokes flow varies over distance , exerting traction , so . The current's internal shear supports the ambient traction with a velocity difference ; requires . The force per area from its in-plane viscous extension is , negligible against ambient traction when . Together these give the viscosity window for an interfacial plug currentFixed volume gives , and the spreading velocity has the scale . Thus andChoosing so that exactly, the similarity solution has , , and . In radial conservation , substitution gives . Regularity and no source at the centre remove the integration constant. Therefore the radial plug velocity is linear:
For the disc-traction analogy for an interfacial current, subtract the imposed straining flow from the stationary-disc solution. The perturbation has velocity on the disc and zero far-field velocity. Reverse its sign: the resulting Stokes flow is driven by a radially expanding disc with velocity in otherwise quiescent fluid. The background straining flow contributes no radial shear traction on , so the given disc traction changes sign. This step uses Linearity of Stokes flow, Uniqueness of Stokes flow, and the no-slip boundary condition. The thin plug current has the same leading boundary velocity and hence the same ambient resistance. Each face contributes ; both faces must be counted. With , radial force balance isIntegrate with . The interfacial plug-current similarity profile isVolume integration gives . Eliminating gives the full prefactor:The formal edge slope diverges, so a narrow edge region lies outside the thin-current approximation. Its traction and volume contributions are integrable, and this is a leading thin-current solution rather than a uniformly valid edge description.
For a diffusion-controlled solute gravity current, excess solute mass, not enriched-fluid volume, is conserved. At late times the effective mass density excess is proportional to solute concentration, so , and . The same ambient resistance scaling givesThis scaling does not determine a universal numerical prefactor. The mass diffusivity controls the growing depth, while dilution weakens buoyancy; assuming a fixed current volume would incorrectly retain the law. The thin-layer requirement becomes ; when only dissolved solute changes the upper fluid, its viscosity is of order the ambient viscosity, consistent with the plug-current window.



