Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 73 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Choose upslope and normally downwards from the impermeable roof, so the buoyant layer occupies . Use the hydrostatic approximation and neglect the ambient return-flow pressure correction of relative order . Pressure continuity at the interface gives the pressure inside the buoyant layer asThe along-slope Darcy velocity is thereforeDefine . Integrating over depth gives the volume flux per unit width . Local fluid-volume conservation, including porosity, is . Hence the inclined porous gravity current satisfiesThe first term is upslope advection driven by the mass density difference; the second is nonlinear hydrostatic spreading. The Darcy velocity and the corresponding pore velocity must be distinguished.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 73 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be the porous thermal front and the polymer front. With the literal stated convention for Darcy velocity,Therefore with . This is thermal-front retardation in Darcy flow. The region is cold injected fluid of dynamic viscosity ; is heated injected fluid of dynamic viscosity ; is oil of dynamic viscosity . The pressure drop is consequentlywhere . Apply the preceding fixed-pressure planar Darcy displacement calculation with replaced by this effective dynamic viscosity. The polymer-front speed isIts position solves , and . These expressions hold while both interfaces remain in the field, the porous thermal front is sharp and stable, and . For the original constant-viscosity answer is recovered.
Sometimes a thermal retardation factor is defined relative to the pore velocity instead. Under that alternative definition one substitutes throughout. The factor of in the boxed answer follows specifically from the PDF's phrase “fraction of the Darcy speed.”
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 73 2 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Take constant Darcy velocity and work locally near a planar porous thermal front moving at . Let and perturb its position by , with wavelength . Neglect thermal conduction and regard the adjoining layers as semi-infinite on this disturbance scale. In each region, Darcy's law and incompressibility imply that the pressure perturbation is harmonic, so the bounded normal modes areHere the minus side is cold with dynamic viscosity , and the plus side is hot with dynamic viscosity . The base pressure gradients are and . Linearizing pressure continuity at the displaced front yieldsContinuity of the perturbed normal Darcy velocity givesso . Therefore . The thermal-front kinematic law is , proving the thermal-front viscous-fingering dispersion relationIt is positive for , zero for , and negative for . Without thermal conduction the model has no finite fastest wavelength: the positive growth rate increases without bound as . A resolved thermal transition and diffusion regularize that short-wave limit.
For a material interface the kinematic coefficient would be rather than . Thus, if the interface of interest were instead the hot polymer–oil interface, the same calculation would give , the usual planar viscous-fingering dispersion relation. This distinguishes the two interfaces and their speeds. The boxed thermal result uses the local planar approximation; distant wells or the other front modify the pressure eigenfunctions for wavelengths comparable to those separations.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 74 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a fixed fluid domain, consider an incompressible Newtonian Stokes flow with prescribed velocities on its boundaries and prescribed far-field behaviour. Conservative body forces, such as gravity, may be absorbed into the pressure. Among all sufficiently regular divergence-free trial velocity fields with exactly those boundary velocities and far-field behaviour, the Stokes solution minimizes the viscous dissipationTo see this Minimum-dissipation theorem for Stokes flow, write a trial field as , with and homogeneous velocity boundary data. The Newtonian fluid stress tensor satisfies , so integration by parts givesThereforeEquality requires the difference to be a rigid motion, eliminated by the fixed wall and far-field data. The theorem varies the velocity field in one fixed geometry; it does not minimize over particle positions. If a nonconservative body force is prescribed, the appropriate variational functional also includes its work, rather than being the dissipation alone.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 74 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
One normalization of the Papkovich–Neuber representation uses a harmonic vector and harmonic scalar :These formulae give because , and give . Rescaling the potentials gives the other common normalizations of the representation.
A point force requires a decaying, rotationally covariant field linear in , with no length scale. Thus choose the harmonic monopole , , for . Differentiating givesThe Newtonian fluid stress tensor is , which simplifies to . Its traction resultant on a sphere, using an outward normal from the origin, is . Momentum balance with the force therefore fixes . The resulting Stokeslet isAn arbitrary constant pressure may be added. The stress has purely radial traction on concentric spheres, and its integrated traction supplies the required distributional point-force normalization.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 74 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Take the upward direction as , with polar angle measured from it. The liquid is quiescent at infinity. On a translating clean inviscid bubble, the kinematic boundary condition is , and the stress-free boundary condition is zero tangential traction. The normal traction must balance uniform gas pressure and any constant-curvature surface-tension jump.
For a vertical Stokeslet of strength , the radial velocity is . Its traction on a concentric sphere is purely normal, so zero tangential traction is automatic. The kinematic condition at givesThe singularity is only a device for generating the exterior solution; there is no liquid point force inside the actual bubble. The integrated dynamic traction on the bubble is , giving the clean-bubble Stokes drag. The upward buoyancy is , hence force balance gives
The normal stress also shows that surface tension is not required for this particular spherical solution. Let the ambient hydrostatic pressure at the bubble centre be , so on its surface . Adding the Stokeslet's dynamic normal traction giveswhere the terminal buoyancy value of cancels the dipole. This is the spherical clean bubble without surface tension balance: an initially spherical bubble can remain spherical in this ideal steady Stokes solution even when surface tension is zero. With uniform surface tension , choose gas pressure ; with , . This proves compatibility of the spherical shape, not stability of arbitrary deformations or validity when inertia matters.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 74 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The force scale is . At the distant free surface, the Stokeslet's pressure and viscous normal-stress scales are . Gravity restores a displaced surface by a pressure change , soThus , consistent with treating the boundary as approximately flat and impermeable at leading order. This uses the stipulated gravity-dominated restoring balance.
The liquid-air interface has negligible tangential traction. The stress-free image of a normal Stokeslet places an opposite point force at the reflection point, a distance above the bubble centre. Across the flat surface the combined normal velocity is odd and the tangential velocity is even, so the normal velocity and tangential stress vanish there. A same-radius inviscid drop of density has downward excess weight , exactly opposite the bubble's upward buoyancy. Its exterior Stokeslet therefore supplies this image, giving the asserted full-space comparison to leading order in .
The image's incident axial velocity at the bubble isTo first reflection, the bubble translates with this locally uniform incident velocity plus its isolated rise speed . Hence the bubble rise near a distant stress-free free surface isOnly the first relative correction is retained; the image's spatial variation and additional reflections affect higher terms.
The customary capillary-controlled small-deformation condition is a small capillary number,equivalently a small Bond number . This is a sufficient condition, not a necessary condition for the special isolated spherical solution in part (b). More precisely, the image's strain is , so its deformation-producing normal stress compared with is . When exploiting the exact isolated solution, that smaller combination controls the leading boundary-induced distortion. If capillarity at the distant free surface is also retained, the gravity-dominated deflection scaling requires ; allows both the usual spherical-bubble criterion and gravity-dominated surface restoration.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 74 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let the undisturbed water surface be , the oil's upper surface and its lower surface , so . Leading hydrostatic pressure in the nearly inviscid water is relative to atmospheric pressure; in the oil it is . Equality at the interface gives , henceThus the horizontal hydrostatic driving gradient isThis reduced gravity accounts for most of the oil thickness being below the undisturbed water level.
Because the oil is much more viscous than the water and air, tangential tractions on both faces are negligible. In a thin layer, the leading horizontal velocity is consequently independent of depth: the floating extensional viscous gravity current is a plug, rather than the parabolic profile of a no-slip gravity current. Integrating incompressibility between the moving material boundaries, and using their kinematic boundary condition, gives conservation of oil volume,To derive the factor in the extensional balance, incompressibility gives . The Newtonian fluid stress tensor has . Normal-stress balance relative to the hydrostatic part therefore requires . The horizontal stress then satisfiesThus the longitudinal tensile force in an oil slice, relative to its hydrostatic pressure, is per unit width. Balancing its difference across the slice with the horizontal driving force yieldsThe coefficient is the planar extensional Trouton ratio, arising from both the direct horizontal strain and the pressure correction required by the transverse normal-stress condition.
Using the pressure gradient above, integration in givesThe stated nose stress condition sets , not an arbitrary imposed inlet tension. ConsequentlyFor a material slice injected at time , let be its age. The thickness equation along its Lagrangian trajectory is , with at injection. DefineThen . The slice injected during has volume per unit width, so at fixed observation time ,Since a newly injected slice has , integration and subsequent differentiation along a material slice give the constant-flux floating extensional gravity current:The oldest slice forms the nose. Measuring time from the start of injection, there, soIts speed is exactly the material velocity at the nose, as required.
For a fixed position behind the nose, the age needed to reach it is determined by , independently of the observation time. Hence both thickness and velocity become stationary there once the nose has passed. Eliminating givesTheir product is , so the steady profile carries precisely the inlet volume flux; integrating it to gives the total injected volume .
The lengthis the horizontal distance over which reduced-gravity driving causes an order-one change in inlet speed and thickness by viscous extension. The associated age is ; the exact profile contains . It is an extensional adjustment length, not a shear-diffusion scale. The result applies while the stated thin-layer and negligible-inertia approximations remain valid.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 74 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Take positive in the snail's direction of travel, and let measure height above the rigid plane. The wave moves at laboratory velocity . In the wave frame the plane's horizontal velocity is and the foot's is . The foot is stationary as a shape, so its material velocity is tangent to : to leading lubrication theory order its components are . Apply the no-slip boundary condition to both surfaces.
The leading Stokes flow equations are and . Their solution is the local Couette-Poiseuille flowThe normal-velocity condition on each steady surface and incompressibility make the wave-frame flux independent of . Integrating the velocity givesPut . Periodicity of pressure gives , and henceThe shear traction exerted by the fluid on the plane, positive in the direction, is
The snail is force-free horizontally: its gait consists of internal motion and it has no externally applied horizontal drive. Uniform locomotion therefore requires zero net horizontal fluid force on the foot per wavelength. The stresses on opposite periodic fluid faces cancel, so horizontal momentum balance also makes the net force on the plane zero. ThusSubstitution of proves the lubrication model of a crawling snail:The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality applied to and gives , with equality exactly for a uniform gap. Thus the denominator is positive, and a nonuniform waveform gives forward motion; the flat gap gives .
For the sinusoidal shape, the given integrals yieldTherefore andFor small amplitude, : the leading locomotion is quadratic, and there is no propulsion from a flat foot. As , , so the wave becomes nearly stationary in the laboratory frame while the snail advances relative to it. However, the minimum gap tends to zero; finite speed in this limit does not imply finite dissipation, and itself is excluded by the noncontact model.
For the general waveform, use the mechanical work identity for viscous dissipation. Pressure does no boundary work because the boundary motion is tangential in the wave frame. The plane's velocity is constant, and its total force is zero, so it contributes zero net work. The upper boundary supplies, at leading lubrication order,The zero plane-force relation is . ConsequentlyAs a direct check, integrating the squared shear rate gives , which reduces to the same result using the force-free speed relation. Zero horizontal force on the foot does not mean zero gait work: the tangential material velocity along its sloping surface includes vertical motion.
For prescribed speed and sinusoidal shape, eliminate to obtainWriting , the logarithmic derivative of the amplitude-dependent factor isThe only root in is . The dissipation diverges at both endpoints, so this is the global minimum and gives the optimal sinusoidal waveform for viscous snail locomotion:The magically driven flat glider has simple Couette flow in the laboratory frame, and dissipation per wavelength. HenceThe comparison is at the same , mean thickness and wavelength ; the flat glider is externally propelled, whereas the snail must power its internal waveform.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 78 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let use the Heaviside step function, and , so that points from the body into the fluid. The kinematic boundary condition gives on the surface. In the exterior, mass conservation and the Euler equations for an inviscid fluid areProducts with are understood distributionally, using and . With , the extended continuity equation isThe corresponding extended momentum equation isbecause its advective surface term is . Differentiate continuity in time and substitute the divergence of momentum. Subtracting gives the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equationwhere the inviscid Lighthill stress tensor isIf denotes total pressure, this tensor includes the constant ambient pressure . Its contribution cancels the corresponding surface term exactly. For radiation integrals it is convenient to subtract from both terms, making with . The displayed source identity is unchanged by this consistent pressure-gauge subtraction.
Assume no incoming sound and no free initial acoustic field. Put , , , and . Convolution with the retarded acoustic Green function gives the three source integrals, for an observer outside the body:These are the surface thickness, surface loading and volume quadrupole contributions. The retarded surface Dirac delta distributions must remain inside the integrals: integrating them over a moving retarded surface produces the moving-surface retarded Jacobian, and is not generally the same as simply substituting one retarded time into an instantaneous surface integral.
For an acoustic compact-source approximation, suppose the dominant sources have size , source frequency scale , and . Also require and the acoustic far field . Then , , and the leading source integrals use the common time . Slow source motion relative to is implicit in this leading retardation approximation. DefineThus is net displaced mass per unit time, is the fluid pressure force on the body, and is the integrated excess Lighthill stress tensor. The minus sign in fixes the requested loading convention; the force on the fluid is opposite. On the radiating terms, , givingSpatial derivatives of produce near-field terms of orders and , omitted here. Neglecting source delays is a separate approximation from discarding those observer near-field terms. If a leading integrated source vanishes by symmetry, its first nonzero delay correction can be as important as another retained multipole.
For the translating sphere, write its center as , with a unit vector, and its velocity as . Let , and . Impermeability gives . Since its volume is constant,in the leading compact formula. The individual local thickness sources have scale , but their net monopole cancels.
At first order in amplitude and leading order in , the exterior incompressible velocity potential is , where is measured from the mean center. It has at . Linear Bernoulli equation gives there. Since ,This is the added mass of a sphere. The explicit leading loading contribution isIt scales as . In homentropic small-amplitude flow the volume stress is quadratic to leading order, over volume , so the volume acoustic quadrupole has scaleIt is smaller than the linear dipole by and can contain a second harmonic.
For completeness, the exact thickness-source integral has a nonzero first delay correction even though . Its first spatial moment isExpand its integrand at . The leading nonzero translating-sphere acoustic thickness dipole is thereforeIt too scales as . Thus zero net-volume monopole does not mean zero thickness radiation. The full leading linear sound, summing thickness and loading, isThe leading compact equation gives the requested zero and added-mass terms; this extra delay calculation is necessary to obtain the complete linear field when its nominal monopole has cancelled.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 78 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Fix time dependence and use pressure amplitude for . Write the incident acoustic plane wave as , where , . “Perfectly reflecting” specifies zero absorbed energy but does not uniquely select a boundary condition: a rigid wall has a Neumann boundary condition, whereas a pressure-release surface has a Dirichlet boundary condition. We first give the rigid-wall result, and then the alternative pressure-release result.
For the rigid surface the normal-velocity condition, without an immaterial normalizing factor, isExpand in the height amplitude, scaling a fixed differentiable profile. The flat total field is . Taylor expansion givesLet and on the outgoing sheet: it is positive real for propagating modes and positive imaginary for evanescent modes. Fourier transforming this boundary derivative gives . The outgoing angular spectrum therefore yields the small-height Neumann scattering fieldFor an infinite stationary surface the Fourier quantities may be interpreted as random distributions or through a finite illumination window and its limiting mean. The correction is linear in and , so zero mean height and stationarity giveOnly the rough correction has zero mean at first order; the flat reflected wave remains.
The first nontrivial coherent correction depends on correlation, not just the r.m.s. height. Define , its power spectrum of surface height , and . At second order the flat-field third normal derivative and mixed derivative vanish at zero, leavingFor each first-order outgoing Fourier component, its derivative data are , its second normal derivative is , and its tangential derivative is . Averaging their products with gives the mean derivativeDividing by the specular outgoing derivative therefore gives oblique coherent reflection from a stationary rigid rough surface:This second-order expression requires the relevant spectral moments to exist and the boundary expansion to remain controlled. Small alone does not control arbitrarily large slopes or high-frequency roughness. The given stationarity and determine the first-order mean above, but do not determine this spectrum-weighted correction numerically.
For a pressure-release surface, instead impose . The flat reflected coefficient is , and Taylor expansion gives . Thus small-height Dirichlet scattering givesThe zero-mean first correction again vanishes on averaging. At second order , givingIf the roughness spectrum is concentrated near after the incident tangential shift, the additional long-correlation approximation yields and . A local Gaussian random-height phase model would then give and , but Gaussian statistics and that local approximation were not supplied. They must not be inferred from stationarity and r.m.s. height alone.