Past exam of the perturbation methods and applied complex variables course of the University of Oxford / 2008 / B / 6

The lower wall has streamfunction zero. The streamline through the lip and along the upper fluid free boundary has streamfunction equal to the downstream volumetric flow rate, namely $a$ because the downstream speed is one and its depth is $a$. The complex potential of a two-dimensional potential flow therefore fillsThe chosen velocity potential origin gives $w(D)=ia$. The remote reservoir endpoints $A,E$ have velocity potential tending to $-\infty$; the downstream endpoints $B,C$ have velocity potential tending to $+\infty$.

Put $q=dw/dz=u-iv$. On the floor its values run from zero to one along the positive real axis. Above the plate the flow goes left toward the lip, so the plate velocities run along the negative real axis from zero at $E$ to $-1$ at $D$. On the fluid free boundary Bernoulli's equation and its constant pressure give $|q|=1$. Its downward velocity has $v<0$, hence $\mathrm{Im}q>0$. Consequently the hodograph plane domain isthe upper unit semicircle. Its marked boundary values are $q(A)=q(E)=0$, $q(D)=-1$, and $q(B)=q(C)=1$.

For the velocity potential strip, $e^{\pi w/a}$ maps to the upper half-plane. The real Möbius transformationpreserves that half-plane and sends its marked endpoints to $-1,\infty ,0$ in the order $A/E,D,B/C$.

For the hodograph plane, first put $r=(q-1)/(q+1)$. Its image is the second quadrant, bounded by the negative real ray and positive imaginary ray. Squaring takes that quadrant to the lower half-plane, and negating restores the upper half-plane. Thushas exactly the same three marked values. Uniqueness of a conformal map to a half-plane with three assigned boundary values makes these maps equal. Cancel the minus signs to obtainThe sign in the intermediate map is important for identifying the upper, rather than lower, half-plane.

On the fluid free boundary write $q=e^{-i\theta }$, with $-\pi <\theta <0$: the lip has $q=-1$ and the downstream limit has $q=1$. ThenSubstitution into the relation from part (ii) givesThe surface lies on the top of the velocity potential strip, so its logarithm has imaginary part $\pi$, givingFinally $dz/dw=1/q=e^{i\theta }$, and thereforeThe source's typeset $\cot \theta /2$ is interpreted as $\cot (\theta /2)$, as the derivation requires.

Integrate real and imaginary parts from the lip value $z(-\pi )=i$:The identities $\sin s\cot (s/2)=1+\cos s$ andgive the explicit parametrizationAs $\theta \uparrow 0$, $x\to +\infty$ and $y\to 1-a$. This must be the downstream height $a$, soThe surface initially moves slightly left of the lip before turning right. Its leftmost point occurs at $\theta =-\pi /2$, with $x_{\min }=-(1-\log 2)/(2\pi )$. This is the half-contraction free streamline at a horizontal canal lip.