Past exam of the fluids course of the University of Oxford / 2021 / 4 / b / ii / Solution

Taking the imaginary part of the complex potential gives the streamfunctionThe corresponding velocity field isPut $\zeta =z{e}^{i\alpha /2}=\xi +i\eta$. Then $w=\beta {\zeta }^2$ and $\psi =2\beta \xi \eta$. Thus the streamlines are the previous rectangular hyperbolas rotated clockwise by $\alpha /2$. Their separatrices have angles $\theta =-\alpha /2+n\pi /2$; the extension axis is $\theta =-\alpha /2$ and the compression axis is perpendicular to it. The middle panel of the figure shows this rotation.

For pure advection, a marked fluid element obeysConsequently the dye circle becomes an ellipse with semiaxes $R{e}^{2\beta t}$ and $R{e}^{-2\beta t}$. Its area isStretching in one principal direction exactly compensates compression in the other. Equivalently the flow-map Jacobian determinant is one, as required by incompressibility. Negligible diffusion is needed to regard the sharp dye boundary as a material curve.