Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / iii / Paper 344 / 2 / c

For a power law $f(u)=C{u}^p$, restoring dimensions givesIndependence of mass density requires $p-1=0$. Hence viscous hydrodynamic coarsening hasAt small $u$, the capillary and viscous terms are both of order $u^{-2}$, while the convective inertial term is of order $u^{-1}$ and the acceleration of the leading linear law is zero. Thus the leading force balance is viscous resistance against capillary driving, giving $C_v=c_s/c_v=-\delta /\gamma >0$ in the signed convention of the preceding part.

Equivalently, the domain-scale Reynolds number is $\rho L\dot{L}/\eta \sim C_v^{2}u$, so inertia is negligible as $u\to 0$. “Small” here refers to time compared with $t_0$ within a late-stage hydrodynamic window: it does not extend the model through the microscopic initial stage, where diffusion or interface formation can dominate. An initial-time offset changes the intercept, not this asymptotic growth exponent.

For $f(u)=C{u}^p$, the dimensional expression is again $L=C{\eta }^{2-3p}{\rho }^{p-1}{\sigma }^{2p-1}{t}^p$. Independence of dynamic viscosity requires $2-3p=0$, giving inertial hydrodynamic coarsening:For this law, both inertial terms and the capillary term scale as $u^{-4/3}$, whereas the viscous term scales as $u^{-5/3}$. It is consequently subleading at large $u$. Direct substitution gives the leading amplitude conditionA growing branch requires the indicated ratio to be positive. The inertial combination must be nonzero: if $2\beta =\alpha$ its leading acceleration and convective contributions cancel, so this particular schematic equation cannot realize the generic inertial-capillary balance with that pure power law. The requested scaling assumes no such geometrical degeneracy. This also shows why the coefficients cannot determine a universal numerical prefactor without a morphology calculation. The relative viscous contribution decays as $u^{-1/3}$, consistently with an increasingly large domain-scale Reynolds number.