Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 36 1 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write for the outer pressure extrapolated to the wall. The normal balance in the thin boundary layer is , givingThe spatially varying magnetic pressure deficit drives a tangential pressure gradient. For fixed forcing as , layer inertia is small compared with viscous dissipation; explicitly the ratio is . The leading tangential balance isThe outer gradient contributes only at higher inner order. Matching the leading outer shear gives , and the physical no-slip boundary condition gives . Two integrations yield the magnetic skin-layer streaming slip:For the present field amplitude,Using incompressibility and also givesHence in the layer, except at symmetry zeros where a componentwise ratio is inappropriate. In the matching region , and , up to the smaller displacement term .
The effective outer boundary conditions are tangential slip and zero leading normal velocity . These describe the bulk flow extrapolated through the unresolved magnetic skin layer; the actual wall remains at rest. For the slip is negative, and for it is positive. Fluid converges along the wall toward the wire, turns upward near , and returns outward farther above the wall.
The following original streamline sketch uses the small-Reynolds number bulk Stokes flow for this slip. It illustrates that circulation without claiming that the unspecified bulk Reynolds number fixes a unique complete flow. With , , , a dimensionless stream function isIts factor in brackets is holomorphic in , so solves the biharmonic equation; its wall derivative is . Thus it satisfies both effective wall conditions and gives an exact creeping-flow illustration of the derived slip.
Bulk Stokes-flow streamlines driven by magnetic skin-layer slip, converging along the wall and rising above the wire
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